The Big 3 Points We Come Back to In Each Video:
- Everything He goes through He goes through willingly
- Everything He goes through He goes through for you.
- His sacrifice changed everything for you and I.
Well welcome back to day three of our weekly study on Holy Week. This is really the big week for our faith as Christians, and while we would love the opportunity to really worship together in person, I believe that God can really use this Easter season in a bigger way than ever before, because we don’t have all the distractions. We are not racing around trying to get the kids into their great Easter outfits for pictures after church. We don’t have the pressures in the church of putting on the “big Easter show” we don’t have any big get togethers to race to after church…no this year we have been given the gift of time…and I think it’s a real opportunity to learn, and grow in our faith as we really dive into the Scriptures surrounding the most incredible gift that Jesus could have ever given, which is His life for all of our lives. The goal of this video series is to really engage this week and put the tools in your hands to bring the Easter message into your homes, and hearts. It is our hope and prayer that as we all face this Global Pandemic and are forced really to slow down and stay home that you are engaging, reflecting, and centering on God…it’s actually an amazing opportunity to learn and grow.
I will tell you that for me it’s been fun studying this week in deeper detail and I think you can see in just the first few days that there was a lot happening! It’s amazing to think that over a third of The Gospels is about what was happening during this week! I think as you study these scriptures and this time you may realize just how many stories and scripture references you hear every Sunday at MRC that comes from these final moments before Jesus heads to the Cross. So let’s think about where we have been…
Remember what all went down on Palm Sunday? This was a big moment where Jesus comes into the city to what looks like a celebration, the humble but triumphant entry of King on a donkey as the people cheer screaming Hosanna, we dug into the symbolism of the donkey, the prophecies that were being fulfilled, and for me as I reflect on this moment I just kept thinking about Jesus and how He must have felt knowing full well that these people cheering Him on, would be screaming Crucify Him, in just a few short days.
Ken yesterday did a great job talking to us about what was happening on Monday of Passion week. Jesus cursing a fig tree and cleansing the temple. That’s a nice way of saying that He went to the temple and cleaned house because there was so much hate, hypocrisy, and people being trampled by religion. So from Bethany to the Temple back to Bethany each day…Jesus isn’t hiding and in many ways He is pushing in harder and harder on the religious leaders isn’t he?
So this leads us to what happened on Tuesday of Holy Week…and I’m just going to start by saying that there is so much found in our scriptures over Tuesday and Wednesday and even whether it happened on Tuesday or Wednesday that I have decided to just take one of the beautiful highlights of this day and discuss that in detail with you in a moment, but before we do I wanted to just say take a moment and head through this day…
Jesus and His disciples get up as they do each day in Bethany and head back to the Temple and today we see them pass by that fig tree that Jesus cursed, and it’s dead which stuns the disciples. Then we see in Matthew 21 and 22 lots of attempts from the religious leaders to trap Jesus in verbal debates but none of it goes really well for them, please read in detail all of these amazing moments but I love how it ends…
Matthew 22:46 No one could answer him. And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions. NLT
Then Jesus turns from these religious leaders who he has just silenced and addresses the people, and for the next three chapters in Matthew, we basically all get to listen to Jesus talk.
In Matthew 23 Jesus turns from the Religious leaders to the people their and begins speaking to His disciples…and really goes hard after the Pharisees, Saducees, and teachers of the law…
Matthew 23:2 “The religion scholars and Pharisees are competent teachers in God’s Law. 3 You won’t go wrong in following their teachings on Moses. But be careful about following them. They talk a good line, but they don’t live it. They don’t take it into their hearts and live it out in their behavior. It’s all spit-and-polish veneer…11 “Do you want to stand out? Then step down. Be a servant. 12 If you puff yourself up, you’ll get the wind knocked out of you. But if you’re content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty. MSG
So Jesus keeps pushing in, He has cleansed the temple. He has silenced their petty debates…and then pushes in harder still on the evil of religion and how these leaders use it for their own personal gain. For all of Matthew 23 we see Jesus call down woes on His enemies.
In Matthew 24 and 25 we see Jesus leaving the temple (after saying it will be torn to pieces) with His disciples and heads to the Mount of Olives where He continues to teach them and answers their questions on what in the world is happening?!?!? It’s here that we see some very famous teachings and parables that Jesus told.
Then in Matthew 26 we see him once again clearly tell the disciples what is about to happen while the religious leaders tried to figure out a way to kill Him…
Matthew 26:1 When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, 2 “As you know, Passover begins in two days, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.” NLT
Then we see this beautiful moment that closes our study down today…where Jesus is anointed for his burial…
Matthew 26:6 While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, 7 a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table. 8 When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. 9 “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.” 10 Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 11 The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. 12 When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. 13 I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.” 14 Then one of the Twelve — the one called Judas Iscariot — went to the chief priests 15 and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty silver coins. 16 From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over. NIV
Scripture References to Study with the Family:
What happened on Tuesday? Matthew 22,23, 24, 25 and 26:1-16
As you read and reflect with your family today and all week, remember and focus on these three points…
- Everything He goes through He goes through willingly
- Everything He goes through He goes through for you.
- His sacrifice changed everything for you and I.
Next up Ken will share with us about what was happening on Thursday of Holy Week.