Good Friday (April 10) Service - 8:30 PM
Please join us for a special Good Friday online meeting via ZOOM. From 8:30 to 9:00 PM we will all be together (click on the top button first) and then from 9:00 to 10:00 PM we will break off into our respective groups (click on your community link then to join another meeting)
Thursday, April 9 - Not My Will
Going a little farther, he fell facedown and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39).
There is a medical condition called hematidrosis where under severe anxiety and stress, certain chemicals are released in our bodies and break down the blood vessels of our sweat glands. So when our sweat is released in these circumstances, it is mixed with blood. This is what we see our Lord Jesus experiencing as he prayed on the Thursday of Passion Week in the Garden of Gethsemane immediately before he would be betrayed, arrested, and crucified.
Why was Jesus praying so intently at that moment? Of course, Jesus knew what was to come for him: flogging; the crown of thorns; crucifixion. However, none of these things were the worst to come. Jesus knew that he was going to be separated from the Father as all the sins of the world were to be placed upon him as he hung on the cross, and all of the Father’s holy and righteous anger and wrath was going to be poured out upon him to punish and judge this sin.
So often in our relationships with Jesus, we have things backwards. Jesus tells us to follow him, but we tell him that we’ll take the lead in our lives and that he should stay out of the way and follow us. He tells us to forsake all things and put him first; so often we’re willing to forsake Jesus to try and get all the things we want in this life. And instead of praying for the Father’s will to be done like Jesus did, we want our will to be done on earth.
After this intense time of pouring out his heart in prayer, Jesus would come to a place of perfect submission to the will of the Father. He would get this prayer to God so right, “Yet not as I will, but as You will.” Ask yourself today, “What do you need to surrender to God today? How have you been seeking your own will instead of God’s?” Allow God to search your heart right now and reveal to you the thoughts, goals, and desires that need to change and be corrected for His will to be done in your life.
Wednesday, April 8 - I’ve Got the Power
When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching and said, “By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority?” (Matthew 21:23)
Back in 1990, there was a song called “The Power” by a German music group called Snap!. It regained popularity once again in the 2003 movie “Bruce Almighty” where Jim Carrey suddenly receives all of God’s powers and abilities. The hook of the song goes, “I’ve got the power!”
As my pastor once taught me, in New Testament Greek, there are two words that are translated as “power.” “Exousia” refers to one’s natural ability, position, and authority; “dunamis” (where we get our word “dynamite”) refers to God’s supernatural power that makes the impossible possible. Most people today are living for exousia…the kind of power that gives us a sense of authority. So we do all that we can to be heard and honored. We try with everything that we have to appear strong and in control at all times. We see that the religious leaders of Jesus’ time were not exempt from worshiping of this kind of power as they challenged him on this Wednesday of Holy Week with the questions, “By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority?”
However, when we read through the Scriptures, we see a very different way from our God: we see the way of weakness. God repeatedly chooses the youngest, least experienced, and most unqualified to serve Him in great ways. This is why the Apostle Paul writes about how God would say to him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Of course, we see God’s power perfectly displayed in the weakness of Christ’s sacrifice upon the cross.
Search and examine your heart right now: how have you been worshiping power and authority? Instead of pursuing the world’s values of power and authority, may we recognize our weakness as broken vessels as God fills us with His dunamis power.
Tuesday, April 7 - Where’s My Fruit?
Early in the morning, as he was returning to the city, he was hungry. Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, he went up to it and found nothing on it except leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” At once the fig tree withered (Matthew 21:18-19).
If the old adage “You are what you eat” is true, then I would easily be a chicken. My wife would probably be a bowl of some kind of noodle. And my son would be a pile of fruit. It is easily the food that he eats the most, and after some of his meals, he will ask us, “Where’s my fruit?!”
On Tuesday of Passion Week, Jesus is on his way back to Jerusalem with his disciples, and he is hungry. When he sees a fig tree, he runs up to grab some fruit and fill his empty stomach. However, when he goes to the fig tree up close, Jesus sees that it has no fruit. So, to the surprise of his disciples, Jesus curses the fig tree and causes it to dry up completely.
In the Old Testament, the fig tree represents God’s people (Jeremiah 8:13; Hosea 9:10). As such, we are to be producing much fruit in our lives. But we also see in the Old Testament that the absence of figs and the withering away of the tree itself represents God’s judgment upon us for our rebellion. The cursing of the fig tree is how God’s judgment is given to those who may say that they believe in God, may think that they have a relationship with Him, and may say that they live for Him, but in actuality, they don’t know Him at all.
Jesus himself says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven’” (Matthew 7:21). Ask yourself today, “Am I producing real and visible fruit in my spiritual life? How can I produce a greater amount of fruit for the Lord?” May we live out what we say and believe and produce much spiritual fruit for the honor and glory of our King.
Monday, April 6 - Spring Cleaning
Jesus went into the temple and threw out all those buying and selling. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves. He said to them, “it is written, my house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of thieves” (Matthew 21:12-13).
When we think of Jesus, automatically certain images come to our minds: a baby in the manger; the Good Shepherd carrying his lost sheep home; hanging on a cross for the sins of the world. However, today we see a very different image of Jesus.
In these verses, we see Jesus on a Monday long ago going to the Temple and flipping over the tables of the money-changers. This was not the first time Jesus had done this as John 2 tells us that he had also cleaned out the Temple at the start of his public ministry three years earlier. Actually, in that instance, Jesus would braid cords together and whip the people out of the temple. Why was he so filled with righteous anger? He would declare that the sellers had corrupted this center of spiritual worship instead of making it what it was truly supposed to be: a house of prayer.
Christian author Richard Foster writes that prayer is an invitation. “…to come home, to come home to where we belong, to come home to that for which we were created. His arms are stretched out wide to receive us. His heart is enlarged to take us in.” Prayer is not a formula. Prayer is not a duty or obligation. It is not a ritual we do just before we eat. Prayer is crucial to develop a close relationship with our Father in heaven. We are drawing near to the One who gathers us up into His loving arms and speaks to us powerfully and intimately.
In what ways does God need to overturn the tables of your heart and life? Come home today in sincerity and honesty in prayer to your Heavenly Father who loves you.