Passion Points

Here are some good posts for your Easter Weekend reading:

9 Things You Should Know About Holy Week – Joe Carter (via Gospel Coalition)
Holy Week is the week before Easter, a period which includes the religious holidays of Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. Here’s what you should know about the days that commemorate the Passion of Christ

Take Time to Stop – Trevin Wax
The best way to celebrate this week is to sense the stopping of time, and to remember the moments at the heart of our faith. To simply marvel at the Word of God and what these precious events mean. To listen for the Old Testament echoes, to catch the Old Testament overtones and familiar melodies that resound through the Gospel writers’ symphony of the cross. To look at Jesus – the One crucified in our place, who loved us and died for us.

Christ Forsaken – Joel Beeke (Ligonier)
The great High Priest enters Golgotha’s Holy of Holies without friends or enemies. The Son of God is alone on the cross for three final hours, enduring what defies our imagination. Experiencing the full brunt of His Father’s wrath, Jesus cannot stay silent. He cries out: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

Why the Resurrection Changes Everything – Matthew Barrett (via Gospel Coalition)
Because Christ is risen, we, as those who are in Christ, have every assurance that our labor in sharing this gospel of the risen Christ is not pointless or without purpose, but will matter for all eternity. Therefore, do not forget this Easter that the resurrection of Christ changes everything. Without it, we have no gospel, no salvation, no saving message, and certainly no future hope.

Hope you have a great weekend celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus.

He is risen.  He is risen indeed!

His Love For You

And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”
– Matthew 26:39

What is this cup?  It is clearly a reference to the wrath of God for your sins and mine….

That’s why there’s shuddering terror and deep distress for him at this moment.  In the crucible of human weakness he’s brought face to face with the abhorrent reality of bearing our iniquity and becoming the object of God’s full and furious wrath….

This is what bearing our sins means to him – utter distress of soul as he confronts total abandonment and absolute wrath from his Father on the cross, a distress and an abandonment and a rejection we cannot begin to grasp. 

In this, our Savior’s darkest hour…do you recognize his love for you?

– C. J. Mahaney

Passion Week Reflections

Passion Week is quickly approaching.  A couple years ago I wrote some daily reflections to help me retrace the steps of Jesus from Palm Sunday to Resurrection Sunday.  You can make use of them by clicking on the appropriate links below:

Palm Sunday: Praise – Rejoice in the Messiah

Monday: Preaching – Give All To Him

Tuesday: Predictions – Take Up Your Cross

Wednesday: Prophecy – Be Alert

Thursday: Passover – The New Covenant
Perfect Servant – Follow His Example
Prayer – God’s Will, Not Mine

Good Friday: Plot – The Plans of God and Men
Pardon – In My Place
Passion – Remember the Cross

Saturday: Pain of Loss and Failure – Struggling Without Hope