From: March 31, 2023
“The Son of Man must suffer many terrible things,” he said. “He will be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He will be killed, but on the third day he will be raised from the dead.” (Luke 9:22 NLT).
Jesus revealed His purpose and destiny to His disciples on many occasions. He said that He “must suffer.” In the Greek, the word “to suffer” is “paschō” (πάσχω), which is the origin of the English word “passion.” Yet, they didn’t grasp His meaning until after these things had happened.
It must have been particularly difficult to understand Christ’s words on the day that Peter was commended for rightly identifying Jesus as the “Messiah and Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16). Their view of the Messiah was one of a conquering king, not a suffering servant. They had not understood the many prophecies found in Bible passages like Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22 that Jesus “must” fulfill.
So on that Good Friday, Jesus suffered just as He said and just as the prophets had foretold. And on the third day, He was raised, overcoming sin, death, and the grave!
PRAYER: Dear Father, thank You for giving us Jesus, the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. For You so loved us that You gave Him to us. And He was obedient to accomplish our redemption. We praise You and worship You for Your great love and for Christ’s sacrifice for us. In Jesus’ name, amen.
From: March 31, 2016
Jesus predicted his own death, burial and resurrection. No one took His life. He gave it willingly. The disciples didn’t really understand Christ’s claims until after His resurrection. When the disciples became eye witnesses of the risen Lord and were filled with the Holy Spirit, they went from frightened, unschooled followers to courageous, emboldened proclaimers of the gospel. And so Christ-followers greet one another even until this day saying, “He is risen!” He is risen indeed!
From: March 31, 2015
What is the cost of discipleship?
After Jesus described how He would suffer, be killed, and rise on the third day, He explained the cost of being one of His disciples. His instruction?
1) Deny yourself – Surrender your will to Christ’s Lordship.
2) Take up your cross daily – Die daily to sin through Christ’s sacrifice.
3) Follow Me – Walk in the Spirit, filled with Christ’s resurrection power.
From: March 31, 2014
This is the most important question Jesus asks. Some answered other prophets, some called him teacher, but Peter called him “the Christ,” the Messiah. the Anointed One of God. This question is still the most important that each of us must answer. Perhaps C. S. Lewis described the importance of how we answer this question best:
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” – C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
From: March 31, 2013
Jesus predicted his own death, burial and resurrection. The disciples didn’t understand Christ’s claims until after his resurrection. It was on the basis of this historical event that the disciples went from frightened, unschooled followers to courageous, emboldened proclaimers of the gospel. And so we greet one another even until this day with, “He is risen!” He is risen indeed!