MONDAY IN HOLY WEEK 29th.MARCH
Isaiah 42.1-9
Hebrews 9.11-15
The Way to Freedom

Everything that God does has a purpose and a goal.  We begin our Holy Week meditations by looking at the reason why Jesus had to go through much suffering and why He had to die on the cross. His purpose was to save everyone and bring them all into true freedom.  In a very gentle way He set out to free even the weakest in society (the bruised reed and the smouldering wick).  Society wants to cast the poor and the weak aside and not be bothered with them, but not our Good Samaritan, Jesus.  He longed for everyone to come to the Father through His saving acts. 

His heart was filled with a priceless, unfailing love for them.  His purpose was to set them all free.  He also wanted to see justice done.  Because all had sinned and all deserve to be punished (the punishment of sin is death - Romans 6.23), the only way for justice to be done was for Jesus to take the penalty they deserved by dying on the cross!  Hebrews makes it so clear that Jesus, who was both priest and victim on the altar of the cross, offered His own blood as the sacrifice to set us all free. He cleansed our consciences.  He made us pure and holy. 

We have been delivered from the death we deserved because our sins were washed away.  In the old covenant, man had to try in his own strength to make himself acceptable to God.  In the new covenant (brought in when Jesus offered His blood for us), Jesus sets us free from sin’s destruction.  He makes us all acceptable to God and promises us eternal life. No-one who wants to follow Him will be left out by Jesus.  His purpose is to set free all unbelievers and heathen, the blind, those in prison and those who live in the darkness of depression.

PRAYER: Father, thank you for giving your Son, Jesus, a fantastic goal and purpose.  You saw so many on the road to being lost for ever, so you gave Jesus to set everyone free.  We pray that all will hear the Good News and accept the freedom that Jesus won for them through shedding His blood, through Jesus our Saviour.   Amen.

TUESDAY IN HOLY WEEK
30TH.MARCH
Isaiah 49.1-7, 1 Cor. 1.18-31
Psalm 71.1-14
The Cross - the Power of God

As a young man in his twenties, Trevor Deering was very, very weak. A debilitating disease had wasted away his body and his mind had deteriorated.  He was not expected to live very long.  He was taken to a service in which the power of the cross of Jesus was proclaimed.  As he came under the power of Jesus going through the laying on of hands and prayer, he was completely healed and his mind restored.  Soon he became a powerful evangelist and God gave him a very powerful ministry.

From the very beginning of time, God had chosen to allow His own Son to be the One who would bring all God’s people back to Himself, and to be a light to lighten up the way for all the people of the world to be won back from the clutches of the devil to be His for ever.  The message of the cross seems so foolish to many.  How could a Jew claiming to be the Son of God do anything for anyone by dying on a cross?  The proof of the effectiveness of the cross is the tremendous change it makes to those who put their trust in its power.

Jesus chose a pretty weak, gutless bunch of men and women, but, they were transformed by the power of the cross and soon turned the world upside down. Do you sometimes feel weak and ineffective?  You’d like to do something for Jesus but feel you can’t.  You feel too unworthy.  If you feel like this, you qualify to be used by Jesus.  Start trusting in the power of the cross right now.  He will transform you and use  you mightily.

PRAYER: Jesus, I give you my weak, useless self.  I am so ineffective, but I trust now in the power of the cross.  Take me, make me, mould me, fill me with your Spirit and your love.  Use me mightily.   Amen.

WEDNESDAY INHOLY WEEK
31ST.MARCH
Isaiah 50.4-9a, Hebrews 12.1-3
John 13.21-32
For the joy set before Him He endured the cross

Jesus endured such terrible opposition from sinful men as we see in these readings, beginning with His betrayal by Judas and on through the trials to the shame of the mocking and scourging and crucifixion.  Jesus went through so much agony and humiliation.  Why did Jesus, the Divine Son of God, have to go through all this terrible humiliating agony?  The answer is so simple.  It was for the joy that was before Him.  What is the joy that motivated Jesus to suffer and die?  It is the joy of seeing all those He died to save being with Him for ever in heaven.  Jesus said, “There is more joy in heaven over one sinner that repents”. His terrible death made it possible for all repentant, faith-filled sinners to be cleansed from all their sin.

Jesus loved us all so much that He endured Holy Week for us.  The moment Judas betrayed Jesus, His suffering began.  With it He proclaims, “Now is the Son of Man glorified”.  Jesus was glorified by doing the work His Father sent Him to do: to make us all holy and acceptable in heaven. We often feel sad for Jesus in Holy Week, but we have no need to.  Jesus wasn’t sad when He suffered. He was filled with joy all the time.  We should rejoice that Jesus loves us so much that He suffered for us.

PRAYER: Jesus, thank you for loving us so very, very much that you went through all that shame and humiliation and suffering just for us.  As we look to you, fill us with faith that intoxicates us with the joy of our salvation.  We glorify you for loving us so much and dying for us.  Amen.

MAUNDY THURSDAY 1ST. APRIL
Exodus 12.1-14, 1 Cor. 11.23-26
John 13.1-17, 31b-35
Jesus’ sacrifice made a present reality

Six hours of history were the six most important hours in the whole of the time span of the universe.

During this time Jesus, our most wonderful High Priest, sacrificed Himself as the one and only sacrifice to take away the sins of the whole world.  While we were still sinners, He loved us so much (Romans 5.8).  It was our sins that were crucifying Him and causing Him so much agony.  He loved us so much, even when we were hurting Him so much.  By the power released during those six hours, He changed us from being His enemies into being His friends.  He converted us sinners into His saints.  We were destined for eternal destruction, but His love bought for us the free gift of eternal life. On the first Maundy Thursday Jesus did something for us that would make His death on the cross, those precious six hours, a present reality for us from that time until Jesus comes again. He took bread and said, “This is my body given for you”.  He took wine and said, “This is my blood poured out for you”.  Then He said, “Do this in remembrance of me”.  As you share the broken bread and drink the poured out wine, you are proclaiming my death”.  The Greek word for remembrance is ‘anamnesus’ which means ‘bring back to a present reality’.  As we participate in the bread and wine of Holy Communion, it’s as if we are with Jesus in that six hour period on the cross.

The power of His love flows from the cross right into our hearts.  Jesus gave us two commandments on the first Maundy Thursday (Maundy means commandment).  He told us to keep on breaking bread and He also told us a new commandment: to love everyone exactly the same way as He loves us. As the Jews painted the doorposts of their houses with the blood of the Passover lamb, so we put our faith and trust in the Lamb of God every time we break bread and share the cup of life.

PRAYER: Jesus, thank you that in Holy Communion you make your death a present reality for us.  As we eat your broken body and drink your blood, the power of your love gives us eternal life and enables us to love everyone as you love us.  Help us to really and truly believe all this without doubting every time we receive Holy Communion.  Amen.

GOOD FRIDAY 2nd. APRIL
Isaiah 52.13-53.12, Psalm 30, Hebrews 4.14-16, 5.7-9
John 18.1-19.42
Clean Bowled

When my son David was at school I watched him play in a cricket team against BBC.  David clean bowled one of his opponents.  He took out the middle stump!  This is exactly what Jesus did for us on the cross.  Satan was batting and with that evil grin on his face, he thought he was winning.  How wrong he was.  Satan, the grim reaper, who tries his hardest to make everyone die, was bowled out for ever by Jesus when He died for us.  As Jesus rose again (because God can’t be killed), so we who put our faith and trust in Jesus’ death know that we will never die. Jesus spoke seven words from the cross.  We think of these today.  His first word shows us that He forgives us, even though our sins are crucifying Him.  When we turn to Him with a repentant faith-filled heart, He assures us that there is a place in heaven for us.  

He ministers His love to us from the cross as He did to Mary and John, showing us how to overcome grief and care for each other.  As He became sin to take away our sin, He experienced what sin does to us.  How awful it was that He felt cut off from God as He cried, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”  It was such a tough struggle against Satan on that cross, but at last it was over as He cried out, “It is finished”.  He knew that He had completed the task that the Father sent Him to do.  He had won eternal life for us.  

Praise the Lord! Now that He’s paid for us, we really do belong to Him.  He longs for us to come to Him just as He cried out, “I thirst”. His thirst is quenched a bit when each of us accepts Him as Saviour and Lord by putting our faith in what He has achieved for us on the cross.  Finally, He surrendered and we join with Him and say, “Father, into your hands we surrender our lives”.  Now we rejoice as we are His for ever!

PRAYER: Jesus, thank you for clean bowling the enemy.  We trust in your cross to set us free from death to be yours for ever and ever.  Amen.

HOLY SATURDAY 3rd. APRIL
Acts 10.34-43, Psalm 118.1-2, 14-22
1 Cor. 15.19-26, John 20.1-18
He’s alive, He’s alive, He’s alive for evermore

Although Jesus had predicted several times that after He was crucified He would rise again from the dead, His disciples did not hear Him.  They were so blinded by the grief of losing Jesus that they could not see the purpose of His death and that He would rise again.

They were so sad, and the empty tomb made them all sadder!  “They’ve taken my Lord”, Mary said, “We don’t know where they have put Him”. Sometimes when we lose loved ones or lose a job or are rejected by family members or friends, we can be so cut up with our grief, so conscious of our loss, that we get very depressed and feel so awful.  That’s how the disciples felt on the Friday and Saturday of the first Easter weekend. They were miserable.  Only one thing could dry up their tears and bring all their misery to an end.  That was to see and experience their beloved Lord Jesus very much alive.  At first, blinded by her tears, Mary (the converted prostitute) did not see Jesus.  She loved Him so much because He had forgiven her so much.  The experience of losing Him had been too hard to bear so she cried and cried.  Then she heard that familiar, beautiful voice crying out one word - her name, ‘Mary’.  Her heart leapt with so much joy.  It was Jesus: He was alive.

How happy and joyful all the disciples were that first Easter day as they, too, experienced the presence of the risen Lord.  We, too, are joyful every Easter.  We may not be able to see Him, but we certainly experience the fantastic, wonderful joy of the risen Jesus being alive in our hearts.

PRAYER: Jesus we are so happy and we rejoice with great joy because you are alive for evermore.  Come into our hearts, Lord Jesus, this Easter.  Make us come more alive than we have ever been before.  Amen.

EASTER DAY 4TH.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.

MONDAY IN HOLY WEEK 29th.MARCH
Isaiah 42.1-9
Hebrews 9.11-15
The Way to Freedom

Everything that God does has a purpose and a goal.  We begin our Holy Week meditations by looking at the reason why Jesus had to go through much suffering and why He had to die on the cross. His purpose was to save everyone and bring them all into true freedom.  In a very gentle way He set out to free even the weakest in society (the bruised reed and the smouldering wick).  Society wants to cast the poor and the weak aside and not be bothered with them, but not our Good Samaritan, Jesus.  He longed for everyone to come to the Father through His saving acts. 

His heart was filled with a priceless, unfailing love for them.  His purpose was to set them all free.  He also wanted to see justice done.  Because all had sinned and all deserve to be punished (the punishment of sin is death - Romans 6.23), the only way for justice to be done was for Jesus to take the penalty they deserved by dying on the cross!  Hebrews makes it so clear that Jesus, who was both priest and victim on the altar of the cross, offered His own blood as the sacrifice to set us all free. He cleansed our consciences.  He made us pure and holy. 

We have been delivered from the death we deserved because our sins were washed away.  In the old covenant, man had to try in his own strength to make himself acceptable to God.  In the new covenant (brought in when Jesus offered His blood for us), Jesus sets us free from sin’s destruction.  He makes us all acceptable to God and promises us eternal life. No-one who wants to follow Him will be left out by Jesus.  His purpose is to set free all unbelievers and heathen, the blind, those in prison and those who live in the darkness of depression.

PRAYER: Father, thank you for giving your Son, Jesus, a fantastic goal and purpose.  You saw so many on the road to being lost for ever, so you gave Jesus to set everyone free.  We pray that all will hear the Good News and accept the freedom that Jesus won for them through shedding His blood, through Jesus our Saviour.   Amen.

TUESDAY IN HOLY WEEK
30TH.MARCH
Isaiah 49.1-7, 1 Cor. 1.18-31
Psalm 71.1-14
The Cross - the Power of God

As a young man in his twenties, Trevor Deering was very, very weak. A debilitating disease had wasted away his body and his mind had deteriorated.  He was not expected to live very long.  He was taken to a service in which the power of the cross of Jesus was proclaimed.  As he came under the power of Jesus going through the laying on of hands and prayer, he was completely healed and his mind restored.  Soon he became a powerful evangelist and God gave him a very powerful ministry.

From the very beginning of time, God had chosen to allow His own Son to be the One who would bring all God’s people back to Himself, and to be a light to lighten up the way for all the people of the world to be won back from the clutches of the devil to be His for ever.  The message of the cross seems so foolish to many.  How could a Jew claiming to be the Son of God do anything for anyone by dying on a cross?  The proof of the effectiveness of the cross is the tremendous change it makes to those who put their trust in its power.

Jesus chose a pretty weak, gutless bunch of men and women, but, they were transformed by the power of the cross and soon turned the world upside down. Do you sometimes feel weak and ineffective?  You’d like to do something for Jesus but feel you can’t.  You feel too unworthy.  If you feel like this, you qualify to be used by Jesus.  Start trusting in the power of the cross right now.  He will transform you and use  you mightily.

PRAYER: Jesus, I give you my weak, useless self.  I am so ineffective, but I trust now in the power of the cross.  Take me, make me, mould me, fill me with your Spirit and your love.  Use me mightily.   Amen.

WEDNESDAY INHOLY WEEK
31ST.MARCH
Isaiah 50.4-9a, Hebrews 12.1-3
John 13.21-32
For the joy set before Him He endured the cross

Jesus endured such terrible opposition from sinful men as we see in these readings, beginning with His betrayal by Judas and on through the trials to the shame of the mocking and scourging and crucifixion.  Jesus went through so much agony and humiliation.  Why did Jesus, the Divine Son of God, have to go through all this terrible humiliating agony?  The answer is so simple.  It was for the joy that was before Him.  What is the joy that motivated Jesus to suffer and die?  It is the joy of seeing all those He died to save being with Him for ever in heaven.  Jesus said, “There is more joy in heaven over one sinner that repents”. His terrible death made it possible for all repentant, faith-filled sinners to be cleansed from all their sin.

Jesus loved us all so much that He endured Holy Week for us.  The moment Judas betrayed Jesus, His suffering began.  With it He proclaims, “Now is the Son of Man glorified”.  Jesus was glorified by doing the work His Father sent Him to do: to make us all holy and acceptable in heaven. We often feel sad for Jesus in Holy Week, but we have no need to.  Jesus wasn’t sad when He suffered. He was filled with joy all the time.  We should rejoice that Jesus loves us so much that He suffered for us.

PRAYER: Jesus, thank you for loving us so very, very much that you went through all that shame and humiliation and suffering just for us.  As we look to you, fill us with faith that intoxicates us with the joy of our salvation.  We glorify you for loving us so much and dying for us.  Amen.

MAUNDY THURSDAY 1ST. APRIL
Exodus 12.1-14, 1 Cor. 11.23-26
John 13.1-17, 31b-35
Jesus’ sacrifice made a present reality

Six hours of history were the six most important hours in the whole of the time span of the universe.

During this time Jesus, our most wonderful High Priest, sacrificed Himself as the one and only sacrifice to take away the sins of the whole world.  While we were still sinners, He loved us so much (Romans 5.8).  It was our sins that were crucifying Him and causing Him so much agony.  He loved us so much, even when we were hurting Him so much.  By the power released during those six hours, He changed us from being His enemies into being His friends.  He converted us sinners into His saints.  We were destined for eternal destruction, but His love bought for us the free gift of eternal life. On the first Maundy Thursday Jesus did something for us that would make His death on the cross, those precious six hours, a present reality for us from that time until Jesus comes again. He took bread and said, “This is my body given for you”.  He took wine and said, “This is my blood poured out for you”.  Then He said, “Do this in remembrance of me”.  As you share the broken bread and drink the poured out wine, you are proclaiming my death”.  The Greek word for remembrance is ‘anamnesus’ which means ‘bring back to a present reality’.  As we participate in the bread and wine of Holy Communion, it’s as if we are with Jesus in that six hour period on the cross.

The power of His love flows from the cross right into our hearts.  Jesus gave us two commandments on the first Maundy Thursday (Maundy means commandment).  He told us to keep on breaking bread and He also told us a new commandment: to love everyone exactly the same way as He loves us. As the Jews painted the doorposts of their houses with the blood of the Passover lamb, so we put our faith and trust in the Lamb of God every time we break bread and share the cup of life.

PRAYER: Jesus, thank you that in Holy Communion you make your death a present reality for us.  As we eat your broken body and drink your blood, the power of your love gives us eternal life and enables us to love everyone as you love us.  Help us to really and truly believe all this without doubting every time we receive Holy Communion.  Amen.

GOOD FRIDAY 2nd. APRIL
Isaiah 52.13-53.12, Psalm 30, Hebrews 4.14-16, 5.7-9
John 18.1-19.42
Clean Bowled

When my son David was at school I watched him play in a cricket team against BBC.  David clean bowled one of his opponents.  He took out the middle stump!  This is exactly what Jesus did for us on the cross.  Satan was batting and with that evil grin on his face, he thought he was winning.  How wrong he was.  Satan, the grim reaper, who tries his hardest to make everyone die, was bowled out for ever by Jesus when He died for us.  As Jesus rose again (because God can’t be killed), so we who put our faith and trust in Jesus’ death know that we will never die. Jesus spoke seven words from the cross.  We think of these today.  His first word shows us that He forgives us, even though our sins are crucifying Him.  When we turn to Him with a repentant faith-filled heart, He assures us that there is a place in heaven for us.  

He ministers His love to us from the cross as He did to Mary and John, showing us how to overcome grief and care for each other.  As He became sin to take away our sin, He experienced what sin does to us.  How awful it was that He felt cut off from God as He cried, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”  It was such a tough struggle against Satan on that cross, but at last it was over as He cried out, “It is finished”.  He knew that He had completed the task that the Father sent Him to do.  He had won eternal life for us.  

Praise the Lord! Now that He’s paid for us, we really do belong to Him.  He longs for us to come to Him just as He cried out, “I thirst”. His thirst is quenched a bit when each of us accepts Him as Saviour and Lord by putting our faith in what He has achieved for us on the cross.  Finally, He surrendered and we join with Him and say, “Father, into your hands we surrender our lives”.  Now we rejoice as we are His for ever!

PRAYER: Jesus, thank you for clean bowling the enemy.  We trust in your cross to set us free from death to be yours for ever and ever.  Amen.

HOLY SATURDAY 3rd. APRIL
Acts 10.34-43, Psalm 118.1-2, 14-22
1 Cor. 15.19-26, John 20.1-18
He’s alive, He’s alive, He’s alive for evermore

Although Jesus had predicted several times that after He was crucified He would rise again from the dead, His disciples did not hear Him.  They were so blinded by the grief of losing Jesus that they could not see the purpose of His death and that He would rise again.

They were so sad, and the empty tomb made them all sadder!  “They’ve taken my Lord”, Mary said, “We don’t know where they have put Him”. Sometimes when we lose loved ones or lose a job or are rejected by family members or friends, we can be so cut up with our grief, so conscious of our loss, that we get very depressed and feel so awful.  That’s how the disciples felt on the Friday and Saturday of the first Easter weekend. They were miserable.  Only one thing could dry up their tears and bring all their misery to an end.  That was to see and experience their beloved Lord Jesus very much alive.  At first, blinded by her tears, Mary (the converted prostitute) did not see Jesus.  She loved Him so much because He had forgiven her so much.  The experience of losing Him had been too hard to bear so she cried and cried.  Then she heard that familiar, beautiful voice crying out one word - her name, ‘Mary’.  Her heart leapt with so much joy.  It was Jesus: He was alive.

How happy and joyful all the disciples were that first Easter day as they, too, experienced the presence of the risen Lord.  We, too, are joyful every Easter.  We may not be able to see Him, but we certainly experience the fantastic, wonderful joy of the risen Jesus being alive in our hearts.

PRAYER: Jesus we are so happy and we rejoice with great joy because you are alive for evermore.  Come into our hearts, Lord Jesus, this Easter.  Make us come more alive than we have ever been before.  Amen.

EASTER DAY 4TH.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.