He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.  Matthew 28:6

One of my favorite Easter stories is about Nikolai Bukharin, the Russian communist leader who was influential in making atheism a leading philosophy of Russian communism.  He once gave an hour long presentation against Christianity, hurling insult and ridicule until he felt that faith had taken its last blow.  He then looked smugly at the crowd and asked, “Are there any questions?”  One man stood and walked to the podium.  He looked slowly at the crowd and then finally shouted out the ancient Christian greeting, “Christ is risen!”  The whole assembly rose and shouted back, “He is risen indeed!”

The central doctrine of Christian faith is that Jesus is risen.  Without a risen Christ our faith has no power.  But we know that God’s promises of eternal life are true because we know that His Son is risen.

Since the forming of the earth God has sought to be in relationship with us.  Looking at the big picture of history, He has done everything to reach us even when we have abandoned Him.  Jesus took the ultimate step to die for our sins and rise again that we might have that relationship that God has wanted all along.  Our salvation comes in Christ.  He alone is the source of our life eternal.

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!

Challenge:  When you think of your faith, what is central to your relationship with God?  Thank God for the blessing of the risen Jesus.

Prayer Request:  Pray that God will be glorified today in our Easter morning worship.

Because it was the Jewish day of preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.  John 19:42

The Saturday before Easter is a strange day.  Past is the sorrow and pain of the cross.  Still to come is the joy and celebration of Easter.  Sitting right between these two like a great chasm is what the church calls Holy Saturday.  It’s a lonely day when no questions are answered.  It is a day of waiting.

Waiting is a hard part of faith.  We may know what God has done and what God is about to do, but the waiting is still difficult.  It’s hard to wait for God to work, even when we know He will.  It’s tough to understand why we should wait when we know God is about to do great things.  But whether we understand it or not, waiting is a part of faith we have to accept.

Being a Christian today is to be a Christian in waiting.  We know the great things God has done.  We know the great things that are to come in Christ’s return, but we must wait.  We must wait until the time that God has prepared from the foundation of the earth.  Waiting for Jesus may be hard, but it is a part of faith that we cannot change.  All we can do is wait.

Challenge:  What are you doing to prepare yourself for Jesus’ return as we wait?

Prayer Request:  Pray for both our Easter egg hunt and children’s events this morning at Town Green Park.

When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”  Matthew 27:54

The faith of the centurion amazes me.  He likely saw none of Jesus’ miracles.  I doubt he heard any of His teachings.  His only experience with Jesus was to oversee the execution of a criminal convicted to die a cruel death.  His only vision of Jesus was of a battered and beaten man nailed on a cross.  Yet this Roman soldier, who probably had no respect for Jews, had the faith to see that Jesus was the Son of God.

What great faith!  The disciples weren’t the ones declaring Jesus as God’s Son.  They were huddled together trying to figure out what was going on.  It took the resurrection for them to believe.  But this Gentile, who had little or no knowledge of the Jewish prophecy, saw Jesus for who He is.

Do we have that kind of faith?  I have at times, but I admit it is rare.  When I can’t see how God is going to work or He is working in a different way than I expect, I have a difficult time seeing that it is God.  It’s hard for me to believe the cross without the empty tomb.  But, despite what I believe, God is always God.  And no matter what we may think about what should happen, God is forever God, even when He is dying on the cross.

Challenge:  What troubles in your life are you struggling to see God in?  Continue to trust that even though you can’t see Him, God is still at work in your life.

Prayer Request:  Pray for both our noon Good Friday and Good Friday at the Pavilion worship services.

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.”  Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, and they all drank from it.  “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,” he said to them.  Mark 14:22-24

The disciples had eaten their Passover lamb.  The meal was over, but the Passover liturgy (the Haggadah) went on.  Following the meal, Jewish tradition called for everyone to drink a cup of wine symbolizing the redemption of the people through the sacrifice of the lamb.  It was a reminder to them that their lives were spared when the Spirit of God passed over the houses which had lamb’s blood on the doorframe.  It was this cup that Jesus gave to His disciples to establish the sacrament of Holy Communion.

The promise that God makes to us in Communion isn’t just that He will take on our sin and die for us.  It is the promise that He will redeem us.  He will not just take away our sin, but He will also restore us to righteousness.  He will reclaim us as His children and give us a place in His holy family.  In the cup of redemption God chooses us as His sons and daughters and promises to forever be our God.

Jesus loves us enough that He didn’t just create a new ritual for us, He gave us a new covenant.  He made a new promise of salvation through His death and resurrection.  In the cup of Communion we remember and celebrate our redemption through Jesus Christ.

Challenge:  What in your life needs to be redeemed by God?  Turn it over to Christ in Communion.

Prayer Request:  Pray for our Maundy Thursday service, “Christ in the Passover,” this evening at 7:30 and for our speaker, Susan Perlmann from Jews for Jesus.

At that time Jesus said to the crowd, “Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? Every day I sat in the temple courts teaching, and you did not arrest me.  But this has all taken place that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.  Matthew 26:55-56

They planned to be together forever, but he had a heart attack a month after their wedding.  She hoped to have a big family, but the doctor told her she will never be able to conceive.  They had high hopes for their son, but a car wreck took his life.  Sometimes the best laid plans never come to pass.

The disciples had big plans about what was to come with Jesus as the Messiah.  But even the best laid plans of faithful men don’t always come out the way they wish.  What they dreamed of as a great gathering of growing faithful ended up in a meeting of fearful men.  Things didn’t go the way they had planned, and so they began to question the plan of God.

God’s plans will always be fulfilled over ours.  Even when life goes against our plans and the perfect plan of God, He will use those changes to bring about His will.  Our best laid plans may not work the way we want.  They may not even work the way God wants.  But we can trust that God will still bring about good from broken plans.

Challenge:  Looking back at your life, what good has come out of situations that at the time seemed bad?  Thank God for bringing good in your life.

Prayer Request:  Pray that God will bring about good through all our plans this Good Friday and Easter weekend.