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MONDAY 18TH APRIL
Isaiah 52.13-53.12
He was pierced for our faults

When I was a child, I used to be very sad on Good Friday. As the story of Jesus’ death was told, I felt like crying. I thought it was so unfair that someone as good as Jesus had to suffer so much. Now my feelings have turned from sadness into joy, inexpressibly happy joy. When I think of what Jesus did for us on Good Friday, I want to leap and jump and praise our wonderful Jesus.

In our reading today we see that it was God’s plan to allow Jesus to suffer as He did. This passage was written by Isaiah hundreds of years before Good Friday AD33. It reads like an eye witness account of Jesus’ Passion. Things happened in exactly the way God predicted that they would happen. This most significant passage of Holy Scripture gives us the reason why Jesus died. It’s the reason why Jesus died that turns sadness into happiness. It was God’s will that He should suffer even though He had done no wrong and there was no deceit in His mouth. Why should a perfect, innocent man suffer so much? Jesus offered Himself as a guilt offering. He died in our place. We deserve death because of our sins, for the Bible says that the penalty for sin is death (Romans 6.23).

Jesus is perfect God and perfect man. A perfect man with all the power of God in Him, He fully identified Himself with the human race. He made Himself one with us. He took all the consequences of sin into Himself and suffered them; all our infirmities and all our sorrows. He experienced all the pain and hurt of every sin ever committed. This caused Him to be badly smitten. He was pierced through His hands and feet and nailed to the cross because of our sins. He was beaten because of the evil we as a human race had done! The punishment we deserve the Lord made to fall on Jesus. This punishment brought us peace. Through it all our sins are forgiven. Through His suffering and death, we as a human race have been put right with God. Now we can be received by Jesus. As He prays for us we can come to Him and be His forever. The reason He died was to make us forgiven, healed and made whole so that we can spend eternity with God. O what joy Jesus has because He died for us!

PRAYER: Jesus, thank you for going to the cross and dying in our place to take the punishment we deserve. We accept you again into our hearts knowing that you have forgiven us and made us whole so we can be with you joyfully for ever. Amen.

TUESDAY 19TH APRIL
Hebrews 4.14-16; 5.7-9
Source of salvation for all who obey Him

Jesus is our High Priest. On the cross He made the offering of Himself as the sin offering to take away our sins and make us acceptable to God. He sympathizes with our weakness because He became one of us and was tempted just as we are without giving into it. He made Himself weak to make us strong. He made Himself human to make us divine. Even though Jesus died for all, not all our saved; only those who respond to His act of love in dying in our place reap the benefit of His death. What is the response needed? It is very simple. We have to ‘trust and obey because there’s no other way.’ Faith is the key to our salvation. It opens the door of salvation. God’s grace has saved us and through faith we receive it (Ephesians 2.8). “God puts people right through their faith in Jesus Christ” (Romans 3.23). As we hold firmly to this faith we know that we have been set free from sin and death and that eternal life in heaven is our destination. This knowledge fills us with confidence as we approach Jesus on His throne and pray to Him. We know that He will give us all the help we need on our journey to Heaven. As we respond to Jesus through faith and are put right with God, obedience becomes very easy. The power of His love impels us to obey.

PRAYER: Jesus, we thank you so much for being the source of our salvation. May we all love you as much as you love us. We put all our faith in you as we accept you as Saviour and will obey you as Lord of our lives. Amen.

WEDNESDAY 20TH APRIL
John 18.1-40
John’s story of Jesus’ Passion

When Jesus was arrested in the garden as Judas brought the soldiers to Him, they said they wanted Jesus of Nazareth. “I am He,” was Jesus’ reply. When Jesus said, “I am He,” they drew back from Him and fell to the ground. “I am” is the Hebrew word for God. Jesus was saying to them that He was God. He not only said that He was God, but the power of God radiated from Him. His arresters fell down under the power of God. Peter tried to defend Jesus and cut off Malchus’ ear, but Jesus soon stopped him fighting. There was no reason for Jesus to fight. Even though He was arrested and tried before the High Priest and the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate, He was very much in control.

Peter, thrown into confusion by Jesus stopping him from fighting, went on to deny Jesus until the cock crowed and reminded him of the terrible thing he was doing. The trials before Annas and Caiaphas were pathetic as they had no case against Jesus. We can see Jesus very much in control, allowing Himself to be under their authority, but all the time having authority over them! Pilate is puzzled why they were trying to get a perfectly innocent man put to death. He could not understand at all why He should die. Then Pilate asks Jesus if He is a king and Jesus proclaims His Kingship. “Yes,” He says, “you are right in saying that I am a king. For this reason I was born and for this reason I came into this world.” But He said, “My Kingdom is not of this world.” He could have raised an army to conquer all but He went to the cross. Jesus is King of Heaven. On the cross He conquered peoples for His Kingdom. He won the battle for their hearts.

PRAYER: Jesus, our King, we thank you for the wonderful way you won us to be subjects in your Kingdom. Thank you for fighting for us on the cross and winning our hearts. We pay homage to you. We worship and adore you, our King forever. Amen.

MAUNDY THURSDAY 21ST.APRIL
John 19.1-42
Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews

Maundy Thursday has its name because at the Last Supper, on the evening of that day, Jesus gave us two commandments. Firstly, ‘to do this in remembrance of me:’ to go on celebrating Holy Communion to remember Jesus’ death and secondly, ‘to love one another as I have loved you.’ It was on the cross that Jesus released power that enables us to keep this difficult commandment. Let’s continue to look at John’s account of Jesus’ passion. As Jesus’ trial before the Governor continues, Pontius Pilate struggles to have Jesus released. He presented Jesus to them wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. But the priests shouted, “Crucify Him.” They really put fear into Pilate when they said that Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. I think Pilate could see that this was true and it terrified him. But in the end, when the crowds said they had no king but Caesar, Pilate got scared of a rebellion and gave into them and had Jesus crucified.

When Pilate was talking to Jesus, he reminded Him that he had authority to set Him free or to condemn Him to death. Jesus told him that the authority he had was given by God. Jesus is the only one in the situation with real authority. He is in command through the whole drama of the cross as He willingly lets Himself be condemned to death and led to crucifixion. His heart goes out to those around Him and we see Him giving loving comfort to John, His best friend and Mary, His mother. Soon it was all over. Jesus accomplished what he set out to do. When He said, “It is finished,” the battle had been completely won.

PRAYER: Jesus, King of our hearts, thank you for the enormous price you paid for us on Calvary. Thank you for the power of your love released to make us yours and the power you gave to enable us to love as you love. Amen.

GOOD FRIDAY 22ND.APRIL
Seven Words from the Cross

When Jesus was on the cross He spoke seven times. Each one of these seven words from the cross is very significant. Let’s look briefly at the fantastic message Jesus was giving us as He suffered and died for us.

1. “Father, forgive them” (Luke 23.26-34). Jesus was so full of love that nothing could make Him hate those inflicting suffering on Him. He retaliated hate with love and forgiveness. We are all sinners and it’s so fantastic to know we are all forgiven by God.
2. “Today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23.35-42). We don’t have to learn a lot of complicated theology to get to heaven. All we need is a simple respect for Jesus and faith in Him as the penitent thief had.
3. “Behold your son, behold your mother” (John 19.25-27). Jesus shows enormous compassion for those close to Him who were grieved by His suffering and death. So today, the compassion of Jesus reaches into the hearts of suffering people. There is no comfort as strong as the comfort only Jesus can give.
4. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” (Mark 15.33-36). Jesus became sin so that we could have no sin (2 Corinthians 5.21). Sin separates us from God and each other. Sin breaks relationships. On the cross Jesus experienced all the emotions of being cut off from God as He took our sin to Himself. Of course, He could never be divided from His Father, but because of this suffering, all of us can now share the same unity with God that Jesus had (John 19.28).
5. “I thirst” (John 19.28). All through His suffering Jesus never even thought about Himself or His needs. When He said, “I thirst,” He wasn’t thinking about water for His parched lips, but He was thirsting for people. He wanted all those for whom He died, those He paid for to come to Him.
6. “It is finished” (John 19.30). Jesus died on the cross to save us to make it possible for us to be forgiven and enjoy unity with God forever. He worked for our salvation. It is a finished work. Jesus has done it. There is nothing we can do to procure our own salvation. Jesus has done it for us. It is finished.
7. “Father into your hands I commend my Spirit” (Luke 23.44-49). Finally, Jesus surrenders His Spirit. Surrender is the attitude we all must have to receive from Jesus all the power released for us on the cross.

PRAYER: Father, we thank you for letting your Son pay such a costly price for us and for giving us so much love. We surrender our all to you and trust in you. Willingly we receive all that you have done for us through Jesus our Saviour. Amen.

HOLY SATURDAY 23RD.APRIL
Acts 10.34-43, Colossians 3.1-4, Matthew 28.1-10
The mighty Resurrection of Jesus

The resurrection of Jesus is an historical fact. God raised Jesus from the dead and chose to let Jesus be seen by special witnesses God had chosen; those who ate and drank with Him after He had risen (Acts 10.40-41). Jesus was the first to rise from the dead. All those who choose to receive Him as Lord and Saviour of their lives also share in His resurrection. We were spiritually dead because of our disobedience and sins (Ephesians 2.1), but in our union with Christ Jesus, He raised us up (Ephesians 2.6). In Colossians 3.1-4 we are exhorted to realize that we have been raised to life with Jesus and so to set our hearts on the things that are in heaven. As we live the resurrection life united with Jesus, we do experience the things of the earth growing strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. Our conversion to Jesus symbolized by our baptism brings about our death. “You have died, your life is hidden with Christ in God.” Your new life (resurrection life) is Christ (Colossians 3.3).

Our Gospel reading reminds us of what a fantastic experience the Resurrection was; angels breaking open the sealed tomb and Jesus coming out to give so much joy and peace to those who met Him. They knew in their hearts He was no mere man that had come back to life: He was the crucified, risen Son of God, so they fell down and worshipped Him.

PRAYER: Jesus, when we join with you in experiencing our own personal resurrection, when we die to sin and self and are raised by you into a new born-again existence, united to you with bonds of love no one can break, all we want to do is to fall down before you and worship you and adore you and express our joy in praising you. Amen.

EASTER DAY 24TH.APRIL
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE

Easter is the most joyful of all Christian festivals. The most wonderful event of the history of the whole universe happened on the first Easter Day. Jesus the divine Son of God came back to life after He had been crucified three days before.

What really makes us so very very happy is the effect that Jesus death and resurrection had on us. As a result of it “everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His Name.” (Acts 10.43)

When Jesus died and rose again He was giving us the free gift of His GRACE. God’s grace works miracles in peoples’ lives. Paul recounts how God’s grace worked in him to transform him from being an enemy, who persecuted the church of God, into being one Of Jesus closest friends. God’s grace converts bad people into good people.

The best example of this is Mary Magdalene. After she was caught in the act of committing adultery Jesus completely forgave her and drove evil spirits out of her. She became one of Jesus closest followers who stuck by Him all the time. She was there at the foot of the cross to comfort the dying saviour. She was given the greatest honour of being the very first person to see Jesus after He had risen from the dead. She was so upset when she saw that the grave was empty but gloriously overwhelmed with Joy when Jesus spoke her name and she recognised who He was.

Every Easter I am reminded of the story of Lilly Daniels. I knew Lilly when I was in Emerald. At that time she was in her seventies. She told me what happened one Good Friday when she was a little girl. Her mother gave her a children’s’ bible story book to read. AS she was reading the part in the story where Jesus was nailed to the cross and died she burst into tears. She had never heard the story before. Through her teary eyes she saw a man come and sit down beside her. He spoke to her and said, “There is a happy ending to that story. I was the one who was put on the cross. I came back to life three days later!” Lilly’s tears soon dried up as she realizes she was having a vision of Jesus.

The most wonderful thing about Easter is that as Jesus rose from the dead so all of us who know him personally will one day rise with him and be with Him in heaven for ever.

A very happy and holy Easter to you all. May the Risen Lord bless you abundantly.

PRAYER: Dear Lord Jesus our hearts are filled with joy as we celebrate your rising from the dead on the first Easter Day. Help us all to die to self so that we can live the resurrection life with you every day. Amen.