The Longest Day

 The Longest Day

April 19, 2025

Luke 23:50-56 (NASB95) 

50 And a man named Joseph, who was a member of the Council, a good and righteous man 51 (he had not consented to their plan and action), a man fromArimathea, a city of the Jews, who was waiting for the kingdom of God; 52 this man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. 53 And he took it down and wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid Him in a tomb cut into the rock, where no one had ever lain. 54 It was the preparation day, and the Sabbath was about to begin. 55 Now the women who had come with Him out of Galilee followed, and saw the tomb and how His body was laid. 56 Then they returned and prepared spices and perfumes. And on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.

Matthew 27:62-66 (NASB95) 

62 Now on the next day, the day after the preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate, 63 and said, “Sir, we remember that when He was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I am to rise again.’ 64 “Therefore, give orders for the grave to be made secure until thethird day, otherwise His disciples may come and steal Him away and say to the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last deception will be worse than the first.” 65 Pilate said to them, “You have a guard; go, make it as secure as you know how.” 66 And they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone.

Luke 24:19-21 (NASB95) 

19 And He said to them, “What things?” And they said to Him, “The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word in the sightof God and all the people, 20 and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to the sentence of death, and crucified Him. 21 “But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened.

Friday had been full of furious activity; betrayal, arrest, torture, death and burial. Sunday was coming with the great miracle of the resurrection, but what about Saturday? The scriptures don’t tell us much about that day. Luke tells us that it was the Sabbath so they rested. And Matthew tells us that the chief priests were worried about a fake resurrection, so they posted a guard on the tomb. In Luke we here that the disciples were still discussion things early on Sunday morning; “But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.” But what about Saturday?

All the disciples hopes were dashed. One of their own had betrayed Jesus and even Peter had denied knowing Jesus. W/hat was to become of them? What was to become of their hopes in one who was to redeem Israel? It was the Sabbath, but did they dare show their face in the temple, or would they be arrested also? What would the Romans do? Would they try to track down and crucify the other “insurrectionists”? It was a day of waiting, or death and despair.

Jesus had tried to tell them, but they didn’t really hear that there was a resurrection coming. That redemption and salvation were indeed about to be revealed to Israel. As the saying goes,”it is darkest before the dawn”. The disciples were down and uncertain about what to do. They had had a hope, but their hopes were dashed when Jesus died, and they were left with only uncertainty.

Have you ever been in such a place where your hopes were dashed and you didn’t know what tomorrow would bring? Waiting on the Lord is hard when everything around you screams death and despair. But have faith, because Sunday is coming! The resurrection brought renewed hope as well as actual salvation. The Sunday dawn revealed the power of God to overcome all enemies, even death. The prophet Hosea saw this many years before:

Hosea 13:14

14 Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol?

Shall I redeem them from death?

O Death, where are your thorns?

O Sheol, where is your sting?

Compassion will be hidden from My sight. 

So take hope in the Lord, whatever your present circumstances. Friday is dark and Saturday is uncertain, but Sunday is coming…

Friday’s Good Because Sunday’s Coming

 

Good Friday, April 18, 2025 

Sunday is Coming

Verse 1

A great light dawns in Galilee 

Some say mad man some say king 

Wonder-working rebel priest 

Jesus Christ the Nazarene 

He knew well what it would take 

To free us all from sin and grave 

A perfect man would have to die 

And only He could pay that price

Chorus

Friday’s good 'cause Sunday is coming 

Don’t lose hope 'cause Sunday is coming 

Devil you’re done you better start running 

Friday’s good 'cause Sunday is coming

Verse 2

So He let those soldiers take Him in 

As His friend betrayed Him with a kiss 

There before the mocking crowd 

Like a lamb to the slaughter didn’t make a sound 

Then He carried that cross to Calvary 

And He shed His blood to set us free 

As the nails went in and the sky went dark 

The redemption of the world was on His heart

Bridge 1

Then He breathed His last and bowed His head 

The Son of God and Man was dead 

With bloody hands tears on their face 

They laid Him down inside that grave 

But that wasn’t the end that wasn’t the end 

That wasn’t the end 

Let me tell you what happened next

Verse 3

The women came before the dawn 

To find that stone already gone 

When they looked inside the angel said 

Why you looking for the living among the dead

Bridge 2

He’s alive He’s alive hallelujah He’s alive 

Give Him praise lift Him high 

Hallelujah He’s alive 

He’s alive He’s alive hallelujah He’s alive 

Give Him praise lift Him high 

Hallelujah He’s alive

Interlude

Hallelujah hallelujah 

Don't lose hope 'cause Sunday is coming 

Hallelujah hallelujah

Ending

Now Jesus reigns upon the throne 

All heaven sings to Him alone 

We watch and wait like a bride for a groom 

O church arise He’s coming soon

Authors

Adrian Disch, Jonathan Smith, Phil Wickham, Steven Furtick

Copyrights 

© Be Essential Songs; Cashagamble Jet Music; Extraction Time Publishing; Music by Elevation Worship Publishing; Fair Trade Global Songs; Phil Wickham 

https://youtu.be/TbDTXuuTpO4

Faith, Hope and Love

 Faith, Hope and Love

April 16, 2025

1 Corinthians 13:12-13 (NASB95) 

12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Hebrews 11:1-7 (NASB95)

1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the men of old gained approval. 3 By faith weunderstand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. 4 By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained the testimony that he was righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks. 5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; AND HE WAS NOT FOUND BECAUSE GOD TOOK HIM UP; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. 7 By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

Romans 8:24,25 (NASB95)

24 For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? 25 But if we hope for what we donot see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.

Faith, Hope and Love. Like it says in Corinthians, now we only see dimly so I can’t claim to understand faith, hope and love. The best I can recommend is to read the passages above and pray for understanding. I Corinthians1 13 is the best description of love in the Bible and Hebrews 11 is the definitive chapter on faith. We talked some about hope yesterday, and there is more in these references in Hebrews and Romans.

For the most part I’ll leave the discussion of love to I Corinthians 13. I will note though that Biblical, agape love is quite different from the modern concept of love which is more based on emotions that on actions. In the Bible, love is putting someone else before yourself and doing whatever is required for their benefit, despite the cost to yourself. This kind of love is greater than faith and hope.

“Faith is the assurance(substance) of things hoped for” according to Hebrews. Watchman Nee translates this as “Faith is the substantiating of things hoped for.” He explains that hope is for something in the future, which you would like to happen, but you don’t see. When you have faith, this hope becomes substantial or real. It is like it has already happened, but you just can’t see it yet. His example of this is colors. Colors are real things, but if you close your eyes they are not real to you. But if you remember what the colors look like and imagine the color of the object before you, you can substantiate the color, or make it real in your mind. Then when you open your eyes, the reality of the color will match if you have imagined correctly. The color was always real, but faith substantiated it so that it became real in your life. Thus faith takes a promise, or a hope, and makes it real so that you know that you will see it one day.

Romans then explains that hope that is seen is not hope. So hope is less substantial than faith. But hope is still essential for life. If we are without hope we have no reason to live. The hopeless live in despair. Hope for tomorrow gives us something to eagerly wait for. In fact, as we pointed out yesterday, in the Hebrew hope and waiting are the same word. We wait on the Lord, or we hope in the Lord were the same things to the Hebrews. Hoping and waiting give us a reason to praise the Lord and to look forward to all the great things that He has in store for us, even before we see what they are. When I look back on my life, I remember many wonderful things that the Lord has done for me that were even beyond the things that I hoped for when I was a youth. The Lord always exceeds our hopes and dreams when we put our future in His hands.

So Faith, Hope and Love; three essential elements of life; As necessary as air, water and food. So hope in the Lord and wait for His promises. Have faith in His saving power and mercy and love for us. And love one another as He has loved us. Do those three things and you won’t go far wrong.

Hoping and Waiting

 Hoping and Waiting

April 15, 2025

Psalms 31:23-24

23 O love the LORD, all you His godly ones!

The LORD preserves the faithful

And fully recompenses the proud doer.

24 Be strong and let your heart take courage,

All you who hope in the LORD.

Psalms 42:1-5

1 As the deer pants for the water brooks,

So my soul pants for You, O God.

2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God;

When shall I come and appear before God?

3 My tears have been my food day and night,

While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”

4 These things I remember and I pour out my soul within me.

For I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God,

With the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.

5 Why are you in despair, O my soul?

And why have you become disturbed within me?

Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him

For the help of His presence.

Hope here in the Psalms can also be translated as wait. So hoping and waiting are related. This is not exactly like the old Buddy Holly rock and roll tune “Crying, waiting, hoping”. He was singing about a girlfriend that had left him and there was no real basis for him to hope that she would return. When we wait in the Lord, that is a different matter as that hope has a basis. Our God is a loving Father who will reward our hope. When we are strong and courageous, we have hope that the Lord will be on our side and vanquish the despair. We can cry in he night but we have hope that the new day will bring joy and we shall yet again praise Him. When we wait in the Lord and seek Him like the deer pants for the water brook, we have an expectation that He will come save us, That is a true hope. We take encouragement from the psalmist who teaches us to sing and praise the Lord, even in our despair. By encouraging ourselves in the Lord, we build up that hope, and hope becomes faith, which is the reality of things yet unseen, but in which we have the assurance that they will be. So take heart and wait in the Lord, hope in the Lord and expect to see His deliverance from all you problems.

High Anxiety

 Anxiety 

April 12, 2025

Proverbs 12:25 (NASB95) 

Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs it down, But a good word makes it glad.

Psalm 42:11 (NASB95)

11 Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, The helpof my countenance and my God.

Philippians 4:6 (NASB95)

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Matthew 6:31-34 (NASB95) 

31 “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ 32 “For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness,and all these things will be added to you. 34 “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

“The United States has a chance to do something that should have been done DECADES AGO. Don’t be Weak! Don’t be Stupid! Don’t be a PANICAN (A new party based on Weak and Stupid people!). Be Strong, Courageous, and Patient, and GREATNESS will be the result!”

President Donald J. Trump, April 7, 2025 on Truth Social

There has been a lot of anxiety in the land this week. President Trump even invented a new word, “Panican”, to describe it. But the Bible says a lot about anxiety and despair. Jesus made it a command, “Do not worry”. Now this command is not in the sense of Alfred E. Newman, “What me worry?” Of Mad Magazine many years ago, who was just oblivious to everything going on around him. No, Jesus told us not to worry because we hope in God and trust in Him for all we need. Our current world looks at things more in the light of Mel Brooke’s movie “High Anxiety”. We are anxious about everything and are in a panic about the future. The president’s words are wise in this context. “Don’t be a panican… Be Strong, Courageous, and Patient…” 

As always, the Proverbs offer wise advice for every situation. In Proverbs 12, we read “Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs it down, But a good word makes it glad.” This surely is a word for our time. Lots of people are going around with a heavy heart, worried about all sorts of things. But wisdom says to take heart, be glad, be thankful, and make your requests known to God. There is great power in prayer and supplication. Our Heavenly Father knows what we need and is faithful to provide for us, so don’t be a “panican”, but trust in the Lord, even in uncertain times. Strength, courage and patents will see us through when we seek first the Kingdom of God and have faith is His love and provision for us.