Category: Easter

Mark 16:15-16 (NIV)
¹⁵ And then he told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. ¹⁶ Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned.

“Picture the women sprinting, bolting out of that tomb—trembling, bewildered, alarmed, afraid. Imagine their hearts pounding in their chests, carrying this message to the disciples and Peter… this message that’s going to change everything, and how they look at everything—what just happened to Jesus, and what happens next. Can you imagine? Their minds were probably racing as they rushed to where the disciples and Peter were hiding. This reminded me of what Will Willimon (a Methodist pastor) once said, I’m paraphrasing… Christians aren’t people who simply know something that non-Christians don’t know yet… Christians are people who’ve had something happen to them that the world appears not yet to have experienced. ‘The risen Christ has come back to us. In one way or another, you are here because the risen Christ sought you, met you, caught you, and commandeered you for God’s purposes.’” [Adapted from P. Jason P’s Sunday message]

Pray for one person who has yet to experience Christ. Let’s also pray that God will give us the courage to preach the Good News!

Prayer: Father, give me the courage to preach the Good News to those who have yet to experience Christ. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Let’s worship to “Glorious Day” by Passion (click here).

-DP

Mark 16:7-8a (NIV)
⁷ But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”
⁸ Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb…

“Despite all their fear and shock, the women are told to go… Go and tell others the good news. Jesus is alive and he’s up to something, he’s at work and moving. Go… and there you will see him. Even if you’re trembling and bewildered and afraid… go… and there you will see him. This gospel urges us to respond immediately (Mark’s favorite word). It’s like when Jesus tells the paralyzed man to ‘Get up and walk’ or to the man with a shriveled hand, ‘Stretch out your hand’. But before we can think about it too much, the paralyzed man gets up and walks, the man with the shriveled hand stretches it out. ‘Go [first, now, immediately] …and there you will see him.’” [Adapted from P. Jason P’s Sunday message]

Let’s spend a moment to hear from the Lord. How are you to obey him today? Even in our doubts and fears, let’s trust, go first…and see our risen king seated on his throne!

Prayer: Father, I surrender my fears to you once again. Help me to go, obey first, now, immediately, trusting in you. Move in power in my life. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Let’s worship to “Because He Lives (Amen)” by Matt Maher (click here).

-DP

2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV)
²¹ God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

“The photo on the album cover, ‘Lamb of God’ by Matt Redman is an art piece by David Hooker, commissioned by Wheaton College in Illinois. He took a discarded statue of Christ that used to hang in an old church building. He then asked the custodians on campus for vacuum debris that they collected while cleaning the dorm rooms, lecture halls, etc. He then applied all the dust, dirt, hair, dead skin cells onto the body of the statue, layer by layer… Upon Christ is all our dirt, dust, dead skin cells… our sin… Even the cross, a hideous device for executing criminals; and the broken, bruised and bleeding body hanging there… And yet, because of Christ, through what was accomplished there… we see something altogether lovely… our Redemption, our Salvation… our Lord, our Savior.” [Adapted from P. Jason P’s Good Friday Message]

Through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, we are raised with him in victory to live forever with God in his presence. He lives to intercede for us. Run to Jesus once again today.

Prayer: Jesus, I run to you today and surrender my brokenness, hurts, regrets, fears…everything at your feet. Come and transform me by your grace. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Let’s worship to “Your Grace Amazes Me” by Christy Nockels (click here).

-DP

Galatians 2:20 (NIV)
²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

“Easter is meant to be a surprise. It is certainly not a ‘happy ending’ after the horror of the cross, though sadly some churches treat it like that. Mark 16 doesn’t read like a ‘happy ending’. It reads like a shocking new beginning – which of course is what Mark intends. The story is not over. In fact, it’s just starting: the new story, the story which is now possible because Jesus has been enthroned as king of the Jews, as king of the world, as sovereign over death itself, as the one who is now going to do strange new things… A new way of living, a new way of being human, has been launched upon the world, a way that people thought impossible then and think impossible still today, but a way that has caught up millions and transformed their lives beyond recognition.” [NT Wright, Lent for Everyone: Mark, Year B, Kindle loc. 174-175]

Prayer: Father, thank you that I have been made new in Christ Jesus. Fill me once again to walk in the new way of living in the Spirit. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Let’s worship to “No Longer I” by Matt Redman (click here).

-DP

Let’s read aloud the following Scripture and prayer.

Mark 16:4-7 (NIV)
⁴ But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. ⁵ As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.
⁶ “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. ⁷ But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”

“Almighty God, who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ overcame death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life: Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the day of the Lord’s resurrection, may, by your life-giving Spirit, be delivered from sin and raised from death; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.” [Collect for Easter Day, Texts for Common Prayer]

Let’s worship the Lord with “Resurrection Power” by Chris Tomlin (click here)

– DP