Tag: Christ's resurrection

Preparing the Path: Allowing him Entrance

*Theme Week – Jesus: Matthew 21

Old Testament Reading: Deuteronomy 29 & 30

Psalms Reading: Psalm 91

I love celebrating. Who doesn’t!? But my two favorite holidays are Christmas and Easter, and honestly the time leading up to those celebrations is as precious to me as the holidays themselves. The Advent of Christmas is all about preparing for the birth of the Messiah and the remembrance of that birth. And the only thing better than the birth of our Messiah, in my opinion, was his resurrection from death. This week we’ll be looking at Scriptures in the Gospels that tell the story of Christ and his followers and their days leading up to Christ’s resurrection. 

And as we read along, we can prepare together for this special celebration. 

Our first passage is Matthew 21. We see Christ and his disciples returning to Jerusalem. It’s packed with those who have traveled there to worship and partake in Passover, and Jesus is coming in on a colt that has never been ridden, fulfilling prophecy. And the people are celebrating! They are preparing the way for him, throwing cloaks and garments and palm branches down to create a path. Can you imagine being there? It’s packed with people and you are taking off your cloak and throwing it on the ground so donkeys can walk over them. It sounds so strange yet this was a sign of amazing respect and admiration. They were singing praises for this man who was entering in such a public, and yet very humble, fashion. 

And the first thing Jesus does is ride right up to the temple and enter God’s Holy Place. And what does he find there? A market. A “den of robbers.” Have you ever been to a public, open air market? It’s loud. People are yelling to advertise, chattering, bargaining. It’s overwhelming and busy, full of animal noises and feces. This is what they have made out of God’s house. How can anyone come in prayer and worship and reverence in such a place? And Jesus cleans up in another very public display. 

I love this entry. It’s full of this contrast of humility and power. It’s full of passion, from both the crowds as well as Jesus. And it’s such a perfect reflection of how I want to see Jesus coming into my life this week. 

Take some time today and prepare yourself with me. Ask yourself: 

How can I prepare my life and clear a path for Christ to enter into it this week? 

What do I need to lay before him to honor him? My time? My focus? My attention? 

How can I celebrate and praise him this week? 

What, like that noisy marketplace in the temple, is creating noise and distraction in my life and in my mind? 

What is dirtying up my faith and my prayer life? What do I need to oust and overturn? 

My hope and prayer for you today is that Jesus enters your life in spectacular fashion and causes a stir in your heart just as he caused a stir in Jerusalem so long ago. Happy Palm Sunday! 

Jenn Haynes

Reflection Questions

  1. Take some time with the questions in today’s devotion.
  2. Throughout the week continue reading the Scriptures asking yourself, “Who is this Jesus?” and what is he teaching us about himself, his purpose and his Father?
sgl23bibleplanDownload

God Did All This

Acts 17

May 5

Paul starts out in Acts chapter 17 arriving in Thessalonica and speaking in the synagogues for 3 Sabbaths. He proclaims that Jesus needed to suffer and be raised from the dead. The Jews corner Paul and he is forced to leave the city after paying the officials. Paul and Silas depart for Berea. The Berean Jews listen to him and study to see if what he is saying is true and many of them believed. The Jews from Thessalonica find out Paul is in Berea and come after him there.

Paul is immediately sent away by the brothers in Berea and Paul arrives in Athens. Paul doesn’t take a break while in Athens. Paul seeing the city full of idols almost can’t help himself. Paul starts going into the marketplace and reasoning with the Jews in the synagogue and preaching to them about Jesus resurrected. They bring Paul to the Areopagus, a court of philosophy, and Paul launches into one of the most cultured speeches or sermons in the New Testament.

Paul starts out with the general declaration that God has made everything in v.24. God doesn’t live in a temple, made of human hands. He instead dwells within all of us. This is in abstraction to all the gods of Athens who needed a temple, a place for them to dwell. Our God when a house is built for him it was only supposed to represent God’s presence with his nation, Israel. It was a symbol for his people.

Paul makes his third statement about God’s sovereignty in v. 25. He doesn’t need us to serve him. For there is nothing that he needs from us that he can’t do for himself.  He instead involves us and allows us to serve him for our own good. Our service to God is a matter of grace from God to us. It is letting us love him back. We are like children using the money mommy gave us to buy something for daddy.

Paul then makes a statement about the whole world’s dependence on God. He says that God gives to us life, breath and everything. Life: many of you may think of this as coming from your mom and dad; but as at least some of you may know, pregnancy is a miracle in and of itself. Either way God gave you your life. Have you had any enjoyment in it? Praise God because he gave it to you. Breath: God has provided you the air in your lungs right now and all the air you have ever used. He gave you the air you used to praise him and the air you used to sin against him. Everything: Everything you have ever interacted with – like that piece of cake or your mama. He made all that as well.

Verse 26 says that God providentially gave to each a time and a place. Verse 27 Tells us exactly why he did this. He gave us our time, place, life, breath, and everything that we have and everyone we love that we would SEEK Him and FIND Him. This statement is so significant if we look at it from Paul’s audience’s perspective. God made everything and gave everything, that we would find Him. He did it, so it would point us to Him.

The good things that he gives to non-Christians and the good things he gave to us, when we didn’t love him, were all done for us that we would seek and find Him.

We are going to skip down to verse 30. Paul tells us he has overlooked our ignorance and is telling them to repent and that he will judge the world by a righteous man. Paul then says that we have assurance of this because Christ was raised from the dead.

This is the third time in this chapter Paul talks about Christ’s resurrection. Christ’s resurrection is paramount to the Christian faith. If Christ isn’t raised we have nothing. His resurrection gives us Christ in us and God in Christ and therefore God in all of us. By his resurrection, not just his death, we are justified (Romans 4.25).

-Daniel Wall

Questions for Reflection and Discussion

  1. How can you be more mindful of all that God has made and done for you today?
  2. How will you seek Him?
  3. Who do you know who still needs to hear about and know the “unknown God”? How can you introduce them?
  4. What does Christ’s resurrection mean to you?

2022 SeekGrowLove Bible Reading PlanDownload