After Easter: What Comes Next?

Mary, Peter, and John raced back from the tomb with the news that it was empty. They were incredulous, ecstatic, astounded. Their enthusiasm could not be contained. 

As they were sharing the news with everyone who would listen, the chief priests and the elders were concocting the story that the disciples had stolen the body. 

Both stories raced through the city. People believed what they wanted to believe, as people always do.

What they believed (or didn't) couldn't change the truth. The Messiah was risen and alive. 

We've heard it so many times that it's lost some of its luster, but imagine for a moment that someone you dearly love has died an agonizing death. After the funeral, you go to put flowers on the grave. You find that the grave is not only open, but your loved one is walking around, alive and well.

How incredible would that be?

That's how it was for the disciples. The most unbelievable thing had happened, and they couldn't stop talking about it. 

The tomb was empty. Jesus was alive. He still is.

Those facts change everything and we should be just as excited about our living Lord as they were that first blessed Resurrection morning. It should change our speech, our priorities, our focus in life.

When we have a living Lord, nothing else matters, or it shouldn't. Every day should be a celebration of worship and love.

But is it?

Will we leave the joy of resurrection behind with the Easter baskets and the flower crosses? Will our enthusiasm fade as the chocolate is consumed?

Today, let's focus on the empty tomb in a new way, and let the joy of His resurrection flood us, change us, consume us.

Let's live as those who have not just been redeemed but who have an ever-living, ever-loving, ever-present Savior who is with us to the end.

"And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age..." 

                                  Matthew 28:20 nasb

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In case you missed yesterday's post, here's the link: The Incredibly Terrible Week and the Missing Messiah

If you feel led to partner with this ministry (US, Jordan, the digital world), here's the link to give your tax-deductible donations: Global Outreach Acct 4841 

Or you can mail your check or money order to: Global Outreach/ PO Box 1, Tupelo MS 38802. Be sure to put Account 4841 in the "for" line.

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The Incredibly Terrible Week and the Missing Messiah

A lot can change in a week's time, and it had. 

First, there'd been the triumphal entry, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. People shouted Hosannahs and threw palm branches on the ground before Him. It looked as if He would soon come into His kingdom.

The Jewish officials watched the crowd and knew it was true. Jesus would take over if they didn't do something. They'd pondered their options for a while, but they were finally sure. 

Jesus had to go.

Less than a week later, they got what they wanted. Jesus was crucified as a criminal. They were finally free of Him, or so they thought.

When the women went to the tomb early that Sunday morning, they saw the stone rolled away and ran back to get the men. "The Lord's body has been stolen," they cried.

Peter and John raced to see. We don't know what they thought, but surely someone in the group remembered what Jesus had said. 

"He said to them, 'The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill Him, and after three days He will rise.'" Mark 9:31 niv

Peter, followed by John, looked into the tomb. They saw the grave clothes and the folded face cloth, and they believed. I can imagine Peter looking at John and John looking back, a little twinkle in their eyes. "Yep," they probably thought. "He's done what He said."

I'm a little surprised that they didn't stay to look for Jesus, but, really, where do you go to find a risen Savior? 

Peter and John left Mary, still crying in the garden, and went home. 

"Why are you crying?" Jesus asked Mary. She was caught up in her weeping, as women are prone to be, and didn't notice who had spoken.

It was Jesus. 

The Missing Messiah wasn't missing at all. He'd just been walking in the garden.

A stroll in the garden doesn't seem unusual until you remember that He had been beaten beyond recognition, whipped with a scourge until His back was ripped open and bleeding, hung on a cross, and crucified until He died. A crown of thorns had been jammed onto his forehead. A soldier had stuck a sword into his side so that blood and water had poured out. 

The last time she'd seen Jesus, He'd been dead. 

He'd spent the rest of His time since then defeating sin and death. We don't know all that happened while His body was in the tomb, but He emerged with fresh clothing and a fresh body. He was on the move. 

It's called Prevenient Grace, this ever-seeking grace of God that searches for us when we're far away and calls us back to Him. We shouldn't be surprised that the first action we see from our risen Savior is that of seeking out one of His own.

Peter and John could go home without anxiety because they understood one important fact. If Jesus was raised, He would come to them, because they were His.

No matter where we are, we're never too far for Jesus.

No matter what we've done, we're never too bad for Jesus.

No matter how long we've lived, we're never too old for Jesus.

He knows His own, and our Good Shepherd still seeks his wandering sheep. He's not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to Him. 

A lot can change in a week's time, including in us. 

If we're tired of our sin and its consequences, we have a Messiah who can change us, cleanse us, wash us white as snow, and fill us with His Spirit. He can (and will) replace fear with power, hate with love, sorrow with joy, doubt with faith, despair with hope. 

Our Jesus is able to forgive, to love, to change.

If you're ready, He is, too. 

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In case you missed this Holy Weekend's posts, here are the links:

When God Was Silent and No One Knew What to Do

Lingering With the Loss

The Missing Part of Maundy Thursday and the Greatest Prayer than Can be Prayed

When God Was Silent and No One Knew What to Do

When it was evident Jesus was dead, his body was taken down from the cross and carried by Joseph of Arimathea to his own tomb. Joseph's friend, Nicodemus, brought the burial spices and, together, the two men did the work of preparing Jesus' body and winding the linen wraps around his corpse. 

It was grisly work for two men who'd spent their adult lives as religious professionals. They'd been careful to keep their hands ceremonially clean, but, that night, nothing mattered except honoring the One on whom they'd staked their eternity.

When the body was prepared, the tomb was closed with a stone, secured with a seal, and guarded by soldiers. 

After the rush of the Thursday night arrest and trial, followed by the Friday crucifixion, hours of agony, and Jesus' death, the stone that blocked the opening to the tomb must have seemed like a symbol of hopeless finality to His followers.

People probably milled around a bit in the garden, wondering what to do, then finally wandered home. There were lots of tears. Deep shock. Overwhelming grief. 

Three years of hope and anticipation had ended in utter failure. Complete loss. I can almost hear them thinking, "Jesus must not have been the Messiah, after all." 

On that dreadful Saturday, when God was silent, the world didn't know what to do, what to think. It was the worst kind of uncomfortable silence. 

There were no prophets around to say, "Hang on. Something wonderful is coming." No one to offer a word of hope. 

You probably know how it is. When disaster strikes you or your family, all your training, all your knowledge can fly right out the window. It's impossible to remember those important points you've been cautioned not to forget. 

Jesus made it clear He would return, but who could remember that when they've never anticipated the crucifixion and death? 

On that dreadful Saturday, God was silent. Hope was gone. The evil one had won, or so it appeared. 

Ponder a world without hope for a moment, a world where God has been rendered insignificant after a stunning defeat delivered by sin and death.

Hold there. Let it sink in...

For those who don't know Christ, that's the world in which they live, and move, and have their being. It's dark, lonely, hopeless.

We, Christ's modern-day disciples, face Silent Saturday as those with hope because we know Sunday's coming. We know the stone was rolled away, the tomb is empty, the King reigns and will return, but not everyone does. 

As we move through Silent Saturday, let's spend at least a portion of our day in silence. Even if it's only part of an hour, use the time to pray for those who are trapped in the darkness of God-silence, because no one has shared the love and light of Christ with them. 

How might you share the hope of Resurrection Sunday with someone who lives in the hopelessness of Silent Saturday? 

Sunday's coming. Let's share the good news, for a Resurrected Savior makes all the difference. In this world, and the next. 
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Please like and share to extend our digital reach.

In case you missed yesterday's post, here's the link: Lingering with the Loss

If you feel led to partner with this ministry (US, Jordan, the digital world), here's the link to give your tax-deductible donations: Global Outreach Acct 4841 

Or you can mail your check or money order to: Global Outreach/ PO Box 1, Tupelo MS 38802. Be sure to put Account 4841 in the "for" line.

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Lingering With the Loss

He was arrested on Thursday evening. Then came the trials, little more than sham proceedings, because the decision had already been made. 

The troublemaker had to go. Jesus had stirred up the people too much already. 

Little did the Sanhedrin know... the stirring had only just begun.

After the trials came the scourging, which was worse than any beating we can imagine. Metal was embedded in the leather straps with which He, who was so full of mercy, was whipped unmercifully. 

I usually forget about the cistern at Caiaphas' house, but it was a part of the horror, too. 

Somewhere between the trials and beatings and crucifixion, rough ropes were tied around our Savior and He was lowered into a giant stone holding cell. It was there, naked, bleeding, betrayed, denied, exhausted and, in His humanness, probably terrified of the next few hours, that Jesus laid on the ground and waited.

He was waiting to redeem the world by defeating sin and death.

Songwriters like to say, "He was thinking of me," but that's only Western arrogance talking. Are we really so prideful that we believe Jesus looked through eternity to see us, sinners in need of the grace He was pouring out, while He was half-dead on the floor?

No. I doubt that version of events. The terror and torture weren't that romantic. 

I think He was doing what He'd done in the garden a few hours earlier. Still praying, "Not My will, but Thine be done."

If I understand Scripture correctly, Jesus could have summoned an army of angels to release Him and wreak havoc on all of Jerusalem with Sodom-and-Gommorah-style destruction. 

Staying in place, going the distance was an act of His will.

He didn't have to stay for the cross, but He did.

I wonder where his mother was during His time in Caiphas' stone hole. I'd have been in a corner of the courtyard, waiting to see what terror would come next, praying that God would miraculously intervene. 

I'd have pondered the words of the angel more than three decades earlier...

"Hail, favored one. The Lord is with you...

He will reign over the house of Jacob forever...

For nothing will be impossible with God..." 

                                 Luke 1:28, 33, 37

I'd have been filled with questions, and Mary probably was, too. If nothing is impossible with God, where is He now? What kind of reign is this, God? 

At some point, the prophecy of Simeon in the temple when Jesus was just a baby in her arms must have come back to her. 

"And a sword will pierce your own soul..."

                 Luke 2:37

During that long night, as they waited for dawn, Mary must have felt that sword piercing over and over again.

First light finally came, and the crucifixion began. 

Jesus was lifted out of the pit. The cross was strapped onto Him and He was forced to walk down the hill from Caiphas' house, across the Kidron valley, and probably through the streets of Jerusalem, to Golgatha. 

It's a long, hard walk when you've been beaten nearly to death and you're carrying a cross, but He did it. Finally, Simon the Cyrene was drafted to help with the cross, but Jesus did the walking alone.

When it didn't seem like it could get any worse, it did. 

Along the roadside by Golgatha, where everyone entering Jerusalem would see Him, Jesus was secured to the wooden beams and the base of that torturous wooden cross was lowered into the ground. 

Jesus and His cross were lifted into the air. He was visible for miles around.

"And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, 

will draw all people to myself." 

John 12:32 niv

His followers probably remembered what He'd said and wondered, "How can He draw men to Himself now?"

It was the longest day of their lives, for Jesus and His followers. He was in agony. Real, unrelenting, gut-wrenching agony. It was horrid to watch but even more horrid to experience.

God suffering at the hands of the men and women He'd loved...

Before that day came to an end and the Sabbath began, Jesus died. All the hopes and dreams of followers who thought He would be king died with Him. 

And then the tomb...

That's where Good Friday, the blackest day in history, ends. We can only call it Good because we know what comes after, but, for today, let's hold here in the agony. 

Let's linger with the loss.

Perhaps, if we pause long enough to comprehend that most terrible day, we'll be better prepared to celebrate what's coming, more thankful for what He did.

Sunday's coming... but first, the cross.

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Please like and share to extend our digital reach.

In case you missed yesterday's post, here's the link: The Missing Part of Maundy Thursday and the Greatest Prayer That Can Be Prayed

If you feel led to partner with this ministry (US, Jordan, the digital world), here's the link to give your tax-deductible donations: Global Outreach Acct 4841 

Or you can mail your check or money order to: Global Outreach/ PO Box 1, Tupelo MS 38802. Be sure to put Account 4841 in the "for" line.

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The Missing Part of Maundy Thursday and the Greatest Prayer That Can Be Prayed

We've reached the day in Holy Week known as "Maundy Thursday." 

Jesus did His usual teaching and healing work during the day and and spent all night in prayer, every single night during His last week. He had redemptive work to do, and He had already determined that it would be done. 

By Thursday, Jesus must've been about to drop with exhaustion, yet He pressed on. 

Late in this day, He and the disciples assembled in the Upper Room. There was no servant to wash their feet after their dusty walk, and none of the men offered to do it, either. They took their places on the floor, table in the center, dirty feet behind them.

John tells us that Jesus laid aside His garments, wrapped a towel around his waist, and picked up the basin of water. He walked over to the first of His disciples and began to wash his feet.

Shock probably ran through the room, but they let Him do it. 

Only Peter argued with Him, but, in the end, even he allowed Jesus to wash His feet.

After that, they ate the "last supper," during which Jesus instituted the Sacrament of Communion or Lord's Supper, for the church. 

Our Maundy Thursday commemoration usually stops there, but something else happened that night. Maybe we ignore it because it's less appealing, but it's no less important.

Gethsemane.

After the meal, Jesus and the disciples walked across to the olive grove where He often went to pray. 

This is the moment in time that made our redemption possible. It was the surrender in Gethsemane that allowed our Lord to go to the cross. Jesus didn't want to go. He made that clear in His prayer. 

The important truth is that, even though He didn't want to face the cross, He was willing to choose the Father's will over His own. 

"Nevertheless, not My will, but Thine be done."

Those eight words make up the greatest prayer that can be prayed. It's the prayer that never fails. When we give our desires to God and choose His, we surrender to His perfect will. 

We guarantee His answer, because when we want what God wants, we can be certain we'll receive it.

That night, Jesus knew what God wanted. Arrest. Trial. Beating. Shame. Crucifixion. Death. The Tomb. Resurrection. In His humanness, the only part Jesus was likely to "want" was the resurrection. Rising from the dead was critical to redeem the world, yet it was only possible if all the other horribleness came first. 

The arrest, trial, beating, shame, crucifixion, death, and tomb weren't optional if  redemption was to be accomplished, so Jesus chose the hard part, too.

There's another part of His beautiful High Priestly Prayer that we need to remember, as well. Jesus prayed that all the disciples to come (which means you and me) would be "perfected in unity." He prayed that our unity would be so perfect, so filled with love, that the world would look at us and understand our Lord.

We're not there yet. 

When believers around the world are slaughtered for their faith and the church fails to respond, we deny the unity Jesus prayed we'd have.

When we argue, complain against each other, hold grudges, refuse to forgive, we deny the unity Jesus prayed we'd have. 

We also deny the world a living portrait of Jesus and His Father, of their love, of the redemption that's possible.

The work of the Great Commission begins here. With unity. If we don't get that part right with our lives, what we say with our mouths won't matter a bit to a dark and perishing world.

Today, let's do that for which Jesus spent His last hours praying. 

Love one another. Live and work in unity. 

"Love one another as I have loved you." John 15:12 

Photo (top) of the Garden of Gethsemane. Photo above of the Rock of Surrender where Jesus prayed in the garden. 

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Please like and share to extend our digital reach.

In case you missed yesterday's post, here's the link: The Donkey Riding King, The Three Miracles, and His Imminent Return

If you feel led to partner with this ministry (US, Jordan, the digital world), here's the link to give your tax-deductible donations: Global Outreach Acct 4841 

Or you can mail your check or money order to: Global Outreach/ PO Box 1, Tupelo MS 38802. Be sure to put Account 4841 in the "for" line.
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The Donkey-Riding King, the Three Miracles, and His Imminent Return

Five hundred years before Jesus was born, Zechariah the prophet wrote these words:

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!

Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem!

Behold your king is coming to you;

He is just and endowed with salvation,

Humble, and mounted on a donkey,

Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

                                  Zechariah 9:9 nasb

Centuries passed, but no king rode into Jerusalem. 

Instead, the Romans invaded and took over. Built palaces. Had royal parties. Ruled with an iron fist. Those who remembered Zechariah's words must have looked with anticipation for a donkey-riding king. 

No king came. 

Some people had probably given up. No king was coming, or so they thought. 

One amazingly ordinary day, that unlikely prophecy was fulfilled. 

Mark 11 tells us that Jesus instructed His disciples to go into a nearby village and find a young colt that no one had ever ridden. They were to tell the owner that the Lord had need of it, and the owner would say, "Sure. Take my little donkey."

My son, Ryan, and I adopted two wild mustangs years ago  They'd never been ridden, either. We had a plethora of experiences. Most of them were pretty spirited.

Putting a coat on the back of a never-ridden, not-yet-quite-tame donkey can be an adventure. Climbing on is often a dramatic bucking experience, at least for the first few minutes. 

In the donkey's defense, the owner had already begun to gentle it, because it was tied to a post and the donkey hadn't torn the post down. 

Still, for fishermen who have never handled donkeys before to walk up to a strange colt, lead it away, throw one of their coats over it's back like a saddle blanket, and hoist Jesus on without a moment's difficulty is nothing short of miraculous.

That the donkey actually walked where Jesus wanted it to go is another kind of miracle.

There's also the issue of the donkey-gentling owner. If a stranger came up to me and said, "Hey, God needs your donkey. I'm taking it," my first answer would not be, "Sure. Go ahead." 

It took three kinds of miracles to get our King mounted on a donkey and riding into Jerusalem, but it happened.

Jesus, on that young donkey, rode down the Mount of Olives, across the Kidron Valley, and up Mount Moriah to Jerusalem. The Eastern Gate was wide open. Jesus rode through, as people tossed palm branches before Him and shouted "Hosannah! Save us, Lord!"

The day of Zechariah had finally arrived.

During Holy Week, we look toward Resurrection Sunday with the anticipation that our Risen Savior is coming again. This time, He'll be riding on the clouds and He'll gather us, His own people to Himself. 

We've waited two thousand years, but He hasn't returned yet. Some people have given up. 

They think He's not coming, but He is.

When we least expect it, on a day as ordinary as that of His donkey-riding adventure, Jesus will stand up from His seat at the right hand of God, step into the clouds, and head our way.

Our King is coming back and He'll enter Jerusalem through the now-sealed Eastern Gat. It will be a glorious day, so take hope. 

The prophecy will be fulfilled. 

The King will return. 

His people will join Him in the sky. 

Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.

"... and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory..." Matthew 24:30 nasb

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Please like and share to extend our digital reach.

In case you missed yesterday's post, here's the link: The Betrayer in Us That Needs to Be Removed

If you feel led to partner with this ministry (US, Jordan, the digital world), here's the link to give your tax-deductible donations: Global Outreach Acct 4841 

Or you can mail your check or money order to: Global Outreach/ PO Box 1, Tupelo MS 38802. Be sure to put Account 4841 in the "for" line.
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When the Church Decides There's No Place For Grumbling and Complaining Here

My friend, Tonya, posted something on Facebook recently about complaining at church. It struck such a chord that I'm compelled to confess I've done my own share of grumbling and complaining over the years. Not any more.

At Hope Church, when you join, you sign an agreement that you won't gossip about other members. That agreement also covers grumbling and complaining about each other, including the pastor.

It's really pitiful that a signed agreement should be necessary in a church that's supposed to be the Bride of Christ, but Dr. Adrian Rodgers helped draft the original church documents, and I'm sure he had his own problems with grumblers. 

It's hard to generate a tirade against someone if you've vowed not to grumble, complain, or gossip. That agreement keeps us a generally happy group. 

When I first saw it, I wondered why all churches don't implement the same kind of document. Then, I realized we, the body of Christ, already have one. Scripture is very clear. Our "no-gossip" commitment is nothing more than a reminder of what God has already told us in His Word.

As we head to church today, let's remember a few admonitions from Scripture:

~ "Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear." Ephesians 4:29 esv

~ "If you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness... then your light will rise in the darkness.. And the Lord will continually guide you..." Isaiah 5:9,10,11 nasb

"Corrupting talk" includes grumbling and complaining. If we don't like the menu, the order of service, the songs that are sung, the sermon, the color of the cushions on the pews, the budget, or anything else, we should keep quiet and repent of our judgmental, critical spirit. 

It's that simple.

It doesn't mean that we can't speak truth if something is Biblically incorrect or there's false teaching, but that's not usually the problem we're complaining about, is it?

~ "Don't grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!" James 5:9 niv

"Grumbling" can become a bad habit if we're not careful. 

When I read James' words about grumbling, I realized that Jesus Himself, the Judge, hears every grumbling thing I say. I can be confident that He's not favorably impressed by all my grumbling, so the best thing for me, for all of us, to do is to stop it. Just stop it.

Whether we've signed a no-gossip, no-grumbling agreement or not, we, the body of Christ already have the Word of God and it is abundantly clear. 

Grumbling and complaining have no place in the Bride of Christ. 

Today, let's harness our mouths and our attitudes and behave like Jesus intended us to behave, with unity and love.

When we do, the entire world will be so surprised that they'll want to know about this Christ of ours, who not only conquered sin and death, but conquered our grumbling tongues, as well.
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Please like and share to extend our digital reach.

In case you missed yesterday's post, here's the link: When the Devil Knows More About Jesus Than We Do 

If you feel led to partner with this ministry (US, Jordan, the digital world), here's the link to give your tax-deductible donations: Global Outreach Acct 4841 

Or you can mail your check or money order to: Global Outreach/ PO Box 1, Tupelo MS 38802. Be sure to put Account 4841 in the "for" line.
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