Over 10,000 and Easter Sunday is a comin...
Another reason to keep preaching through the Bible chapter by chapter and verse by verse, when the Gospel shows up all the time and at just the right time lets you know that God is behind it all. We are marching through Matthew and stuck in the Sermon on the Mount and it would be tempting to swerve away for this Sunday but God showed me differently.
Jesus is giving us His answers to the Old Testament commandments and He is driving us back to original intentions instead of our perversions of the truth. He gives another this week when is comes to justice and personal vengeance. What also amazes me is that Jesus backs up everything He says with His own actions. That will happen again this week. Every example that He gives in Matthew 5:38-42 is backed up by a life experience that He shows us with His life. This is were the Gospel and the Easter story will come into play. Oh, how He went through so much for us.
I love the scene with Jesus and the thief on the cross. Even to the end we are given a gospel presentation. The thief who had probably been making excuses for his sin or rationalizing it away comes face to face with the holiness of God and recognizes his position. He is a sinner. He also recognizes Jesus' position as One who was without sin and in the position of Savior. He then calls out to Him and Jesus grants more than he was probably thinking he would get. Another picture of this is the parable of the prodigal son. He came back to the father thinking he would just get food and shelter and a job but the father gave him so much more.
I pray for another opportunity to open up the invitation to come to Jesus this Easter. Last year we had about 195 in the service and 1 hand went up for Jesus. (I had to read last year's post to remember and we also had a snow storm just before with 9 inches of snow in late April. I hope we don't repeat that part.) Even though it is Spring Break week here, I pray for another great Easter to proclaim "He is risen."
Adam
Jesus is giving us His answers to the Old Testament commandments and He is driving us back to original intentions instead of our perversions of the truth. He gives another this week when is comes to justice and personal vengeance. What also amazes me is that Jesus backs up everything He says with His own actions. That will happen again this week. Every example that He gives in Matthew 5:38-42 is backed up by a life experience that He shows us with His life. This is were the Gospel and the Easter story will come into play. Oh, how He went through so much for us.
I love the scene with Jesus and the thief on the cross. Even to the end we are given a gospel presentation. The thief who had probably been making excuses for his sin or rationalizing it away comes face to face with the holiness of God and recognizes his position. He is a sinner. He also recognizes Jesus' position as One who was without sin and in the position of Savior. He then calls out to Him and Jesus grants more than he was probably thinking he would get. Another picture of this is the parable of the prodigal son. He came back to the father thinking he would just get food and shelter and a job but the father gave him so much more.
I pray for another opportunity to open up the invitation to come to Jesus this Easter. Last year we had about 195 in the service and 1 hand went up for Jesus. (I had to read last year's post to remember and we also had a snow storm just before with 9 inches of snow in late April. I hope we don't repeat that part.) Even though it is Spring Break week here, I pray for another great Easter to proclaim "He is risen."
Adam
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