Sunday's Coming

I saw this quote written somewhere and they sourced it as part of an Easter sermon by E.V. Hill.  I liked it so I'm re-posting it here.

"It’s Friday. Jesus is arrested in the garden where He was praying. But Sunday’s coming.

It’s Friday, The disciples are hiding and Peter’s denying that he knows the Lord. But Sunday’s coming.

It’s Friday. Jesus is standing before the high priest of Israel, silent as a lamb before the slaughter. But Sunday’s coming.

It’s Friday. Jesus is beaten, mocked, and spit upon. But Sunday’s coming.

And on that horrible day 2000 years ago, Jesus the Christ, the Lord of glory, the only begotten Son of God, the only perfect man died on the cross of Calvary. Satan thought that he had won the victory… But that was Friday…

It’s Sunday, and the crucified and resurrected Christ has defeated death, hell, sin and the grave. It’s Sunday. And now everything has changed. It’s the age of grace. God’s grace poured out on all who would look to the crucified lamb of Calvary. Grace freely given to all who would believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross of Calvary, was buried, and rose again. All because it’s Sunday."

He is Risen!

He is not here, but is risen! Luke 24:6

What a wonderful time of the year to celebrate His resurrection!

These are some beautiful white dogwood blooms with the Easter scripture.

The empty tomb display at The Holy Land Experience with the Luke 24:4 scripture "He is not here, but is risen."

The resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Pink Dogwoods

Wishing everyone a wonderful Easter!

Empty Tomb with Crosses

I visited the Holy Land Experience in Orlando, Florida. They have great displays of how the land of Israel would have looked like way back when.

The Empty Tomb

"He is not here, but is risen!" Luke 24:6

Christ's Death and Resurrection In the Old Testament

This was in my Khouse newsletter this week and I wanted to share.

Visit their excellent website of teachings sometime soon!

http://www.khouse.org/

"And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced…" -Zechariah 12:10

"…Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:" - Luke 24:46

John the Baptist wore camel's hair and ate locusts and wild honey (Matt 3:4). And by the Spirit, John recognized the true purpose of Jesus of Nazareth from the beginning, before Jesus' ministry had even started. John introduced Jesus to the crowds in John 1:29, saying, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." John understood. He got it.

After his resurrection, Jesus met two men on the road to Emmaus, and he expected them to already understand through the Scriptures that Christ was meant to suffer and die. "And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself," (Luke 24:26-27).

We would all have loved to be there on the road to Emmaus that day, walking with the resurrected Jesus himself as he detailed the different prophecies that concerned his death and resurrection. Still, the apostles and other New Testament writers do a good job of filling us in. The Old Testament is filled with prophecies and types of Jesus' suffering and death and resurrection as payment for the sins of the world, and the New Testament points those out.

Psalm 16:8-11
Simon Peter starts out on the day of Pentecost explaining that Jesus the Messiah had risen from the dead, "Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it," (Acts 2:24). Peter then pulled from the Psalms to prove the truth of his testimony.

"For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.

"Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses." -Act 2:24-32

Psalm 22:
The sacrifice and resurrection of the Messiah are throughout the Old Testament. Psalm 22, written by King David a millennium before Christ, gives us the very perspective of the Lord hanging on the cross. It describes how the people mocked Christ (Psalm 22:7-8; Mat 27:41-43), how they cast lots to divide up his clothes (Psalm 22:18;Mat 27:35), how his bones were out of joint (Psalm 22:14), how the wicked had surrounded him and pierced his hands and feet (Psalm 22:16) – the scars of which Thomas later got to touch and feel (John 20:27). Psalm 22 ends by saying God's righteousness would be declared to "a people that shall be born" (Psalm 22:31).

The Sign of Jonah:
The Bible is also full of types and foreshadowings. Jesus Christ is throughout the Old Testament in a variety of details. For instance, before his death and resurrection, Jesus offered simply the "sign of Jonah" as a foreshadowing of how long he would be dead.

"For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." - Matt 12:40

Isaiah 53:
Isaiah 52:13-53:12 offers one of the most profound prophecies in the entire Old Testament, written over 700 years before Christ's death and resurrection.

"He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all."- Isaiah 53:3-6

Some have argued that this passage refers to Israel, but in the context that explanation makes little sense. Isaiah clearly says in verse 53:8, "for the transgression of my people was he stricken." That is, "he" stands in contrast to Israel, Isaiah's people.

In the next verse, Isaiah says: "And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth."

It cannot be said of Israel that there was no deceit in her mouth.

On the other hand, Jesus was crucified between two thieves (Mark 15:27), and yet was buried in the grave of Joseph of Arimathaea, a wealthy man with enough standing to go ask Pilate for Jesus' body (Mark15:43-46).

In Isaiah 53:10, we get a hint at a resurrection, because after his soul is made "an offering for sin" he will then "prolong his days."

In the end, Isaiah says in verse 12 that God would reward this righteous servant (numbered with the transgressors, but not one himself), "he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors."

Our Redeemer Lives:
In the oldest book of the Bible, written even before Moses wrote the Pentateuch, Job prophesied from the ash heap where he suffered. He declared in verses 19:25-26:

"For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God."

Passover:
These prophecies are just the beginning, of course. Exodus 12:1-28 describes the feast of Passover. It was set up as a type of Christ, one that gave the Hebrews an understanding of the use of a perfect lamb as a sacrifice, the blood of which would protect those under it from the wrath of God, the angel of death. The Jews were to prepare for the feast by removing all leaven from their homes, symbolic of removing sin from their lives.

Paul the scholar writes in 1 Corinthians 5:7, "Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us."

The Pure Spotless Lamb:
Peter describes how we are saved by "the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." Just as John the Baptist understood, Jesus was the fulfillment of the Levitical system of blood sacrifice (e.g. Lev 8-9). Jesus was the true spotless lamb whose blood could take away sins. The sacrifice of bulls and goats could never take away sin, as the writer of Hebrews noted in verses 10:4-5, quoting Psalm 40:6:

"For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:"

The sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the sins of humanity was not an afterthought of God. It was always the plan from the beginning. Revelation 13:8 calls Jesus, "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."

Throughout the Law and the Prophets, God revealed His eternal plan of redemption to mankind. In advance, He described the sacrifice and resurrection of the Messiah. It was a plan He had purposed before He had even formed humanity. He then accomplished it, and through Jesus Christ we have the victory now and forever.

Praise the King!

"He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it." - Isaiah 25:8

Easter Lilies

Beautiful white Easter Lilies in a soft focus effect.

He is Risen!

Happy Easter!

Luke 24:1-8

Luk 24:1-8
(1) Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.
(2) But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.
(3) Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
(4) And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments.
(5) Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead?
(6) He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee,
(7) saying, 'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.' "
(8) And they remembered His words.

Also read Matthew 28:1-6, Mark 16:1-6, John 20 & 21

The Cross

Wishing everyone a blessed holiday!

Isaiah 53 - The Suffering Servant

The Holy of Holies

Another Old Testament prophet's predictions on Jesus' sufferings at the cross.

Start with Isaish 52:13 and read through chapter 53.

Isa 52:13-53:12
(13) Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently; He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high.
(14) Just as many were astonished at you, So His visage was marred more than any man, And His form more than the sons of men;
(15) So shall He sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths at Him; For what had not been told them they shall see, And what they had not heard they shall consider.
(1) Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
(2) For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
(3) He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
(4) Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.
(5) But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
(6) All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
(7) He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth.
(8) He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.
(9) And they made His grave with the wicked— But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth.
(10) Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.
(11) He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities.
(12) Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors.

The accuracy is amazing!

The Good Shepherd

John 10:11

"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep."

Pink Dogwood Blooms

Luke 24:6

"He is not here, but is risen."

They Didn't Know the Time of His Visitation

Jesus weeps over Jerusalem.

Luk 19:41-44
(41) Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it,
(42) saying, "If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.
(43) For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side,
(44) and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation."

He was to be crucified at the end of the 69th week of Daniel or 483 years after the command to rebuild Jerusalem at the end of the Babylonian captivity.

This is a mathmatical prophecy in Daniel! He gives Israel the exact number of years when the Mashiyach Nagid (the Annointed One) would appear. The exact days are 173,880. (483 yrs times 360 days.) If they had known Daniel, then they would have "known the time of your visitation".

Dan 9:24-27
(24) "Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city, To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy.
(25) "Know therefore and understand, That from the going forth of the command To restore and build Jerusalem Until Messiah the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, Even in troublesome times.
(26) "And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; And the people of the prince who is to come Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, And till the end of the war desolations are determined.
(27) Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate."

Palm Sunday

Today is Palm Sunday. This event marks the beginning of the last week of Jesus' life.

Luk 19:29-44
(29) And it came to pass, when He drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mountain called Olivet, that He sent two of His disciples,
(30) saying, "Go into the village opposite you, where as you enter you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Loose it and bring it here.
(31) And if anyone asks you, 'Why are you loosing it?' thus you shall say to him, 'Because the Lord has need of it.' "
(32) So those who were sent went their way and found it just as He had said to them.
(33) But as they were loosing the colt, the owners of it said to them, "Why are you loosing the colt?"
(34) And they said, "The Lord has need of him."
(35) Then they brought him to Jesus. And they threw their own clothes on the colt, and they set Jesus on him.
(36) And as He went, many spread their clothes on the road.
(37) Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen,
(38) saying: " 'BLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!' Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!"
(39) And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, "Teacher, rebuke Your disciples."
(40) But He answered and said to them, "I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out."
(41) Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it,
(42) saying, "If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.
(43) For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side,
(44) and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation."

Prophecy fulfilled in Zechariah.

Zec 9:9
(9) "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.

The Carpenter's Journey

Great book on the events of Jesus at the Cross.

The Empty Tomb and Cross

The Cross, The Empty Tomb and The Resurrection!

John 14:19

"Because I live, you will also live."

See more Easter photos.

Easter Lily and Cross

Easter Lily and The Cross

This image is downloadable for websites, graphic designs, bulletins, etc.




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Dogwood Easter Cards

White dogwood blooms Easter cards are available through Shutterfly.

Thanks for your support!

White Dogwood Blooms

Beautiful white blooms from the Dogwood tree. I'm looking forward to Spring!

Luke 24:6

"He is not here, but is risen."