The Resurrection of Jesus

Were women designated to anoint the bodies of the dead? Even though Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus took the body of Jesus from the cross, anointing him with fragrant oils (John 16:39), Mary Magdalene, Mary the Mother of James & Salome came early in the morning to do the same.

However, the women were met with a surprise proclamation from an angel, sitting in the tomb where Jesus lay: He has risen! The women were told to tell the disciples and to inform that Jesus was in Galilee. They were so awestruck that they said nothing to anyone.

Jesus Appears to Some of His Followers

Though the 3 women who went to anoint Jesus were so shocked about what they witnessed at the tomb, Jesus appeared to one of them, Mary Magdalene, seemingly later. Its interesting that the fact that she had 7 demons cast out of her was mentioned here in scripture. Why would this be important to mention? To let the demonic realm know of Jesus’ preeminence. Mary told the disciples that she’d seen Jesus, but they didn’t believe. Jesus appears to 2 others who told the 11 and the 11 still didn’t believe. Why? They were still stuck in carnality, grief stricken, saddened over not sticking up for Him when he was taken to be crucified. They needed to go through this to learn a lesson of true love for Jesus.

Now the disciples have a mandate: To preach the Good News that we are saved from the bondage of sin. Believe and be baptized and you will be counted saved. Believers now have power and authority to speak in tongues, cast out demons, possesses supernatural power in protection and healing others. If you don’t have these, then you must question your belief in Jesus.

Summary

1. He is risen, hallelujah! 6
2. Rise early to meet Jesus, 1-2, 9*
3. Let the disciples say that Christ is on the way, 7
4. Believe beyond what you can see, 11
5. Jesus can appear in disguise, open your eyes, 12*
6. As the word is preached forth signs will follow evermore, 20
7. Live a life that is naturally supernatural, 15-20*
8. Believe and be baptized, 16
9. The power of Lord will open doors, 4
10. Harden not your heart against the truth, 14
11. In Jesus name there is healing, 17, 19

Jesus Handed Over to Pilate

The Chief priest were accusing Jesus of many things but He didn’t defend Himself. Jesus was meant to be crucified, but its interesting how Pilot was convinced there was nothing wrong with Jesus that deserved death. But the Chief priests wanted Him dead so badly that they persuaded a crowd of people to want Him dead. When asked what evil He did, neither the Jewish Rulers nor the crowd could give an answer. Jesus was challenging them in the ways they thought they were ‘of God.” Jesus did nothing wrong. They were so righteous in their own eyes they didn’t see the Savior in front of them. Jesus’ presence and teachings were messing with their money and everything they’d established for themselves.

Jesus and Barabbas

Barabas was a criminal and the crowd asked for him to be released instead of Jesus the innocent.

The Soldiers Mock Jesus

You see the heart of others in the awful way they treat people. You can see how the heart of man can be so blind. You see there is no love for another human being. Looking beyond the person, you see the adversary in his hatred getting to wail on the Son of God. Even what Satan intended for evil God had a different story.

Jesus’ humility keeps coming up. Its something to marvel at and take in. If this was one of us, we’d surely be fighting back to defend and save ourselves. Isaiah prophesied having looked into the feature that He wouldn’t fight back. He fully committed Himself to God. He is the ultimate model of humility.

Reading His passion allows you to come closer to Jesus in a whole new way. He willingly gave Himself to suffer for us so that He could have us; so that we can know who our God is.

The Death of Jesus

Jesus came into the world for this purpose: to die. Dying as an innocent person. His life in exchange for all the lives of every person who had ever or would ever live. The veil in the temple was torn to the Holy of Holies. No one was able to go into the Holy of Holies except the High Priest and at that only once a year. Now, anyone was permitted to go into that most sacred place before the Father, because the sinless blood of Jesus was spilled and atoned for the sins of humanity.

Jesus’ Burial

Joseph of Arimathea was waiting for the Kingdom of God and was a lover and disciple of Jesus. To buy fine linen to wrap Jesus’ body in was an incredible act of love toward Him, giving Him dignity in having a proper burial.

Summary

1. Don’t choose sin over salvation, 12-13
2. There is a day when we all must be buried, 46
3. Jesus became a curse so He could remove the curse, 17, 24*
4. The truth will defend itself, 4-5
5. Even though they may mock you maintain your walk, 31
6. What once was for the priest is a place where we can all meet, 38
7. He was forsaken that we may be found, 34
8. You must bear your cross so your soul won’t be lost, 21
9. Don’t let anything stop His will from being fulfilled in your life, 28
10. Would you help Jesus in His suffering? 21*
11. Anticipate God’s Kingdom Realm in the Earth, 43*

The Plot to Kill Jesus

The Priests and Religious Scholars wanted to kill Jesus.

Jesus is Anointed for His Death and Burial

Do we have areas in our life where we value Jesus with our whole lives like the woman who anointed Jesus or are we like the disciples who did not seem to value Him as much as she?

The Passover

Get a visual of being in the disciples shoes as they are wondering who it was who would betray Jesus. Can you even imagine what may have been going through Judas’ mind?

Jesus Shares Communion with His Twelve

Jesus doesn’t expose Judas before the other 11 disciples. He sees the bigger picture in the midst of it. Look at Jesus’ life as a blueprint. Don’t call those out who betray and back-stab you, but focus on the bigger picture, what really matters.

Jesus Prophesies Peter’s Denial

We can see Peter’s arrogance here and his great love for Jesus.

Jesus Prays in Gethsemane

We are to do for Him what He did for us, because He first did it for us. He threw Himself down and prayed to the Father. Coming back to His disciples, he found they were asleep. Are you in a spiritual sleep to the point that when Jesus comes, you’ll be left behind? Always be on guard and covered by watching and praying.

Jesus’ Betrayal and Arrest

Judas identifies Jesus with an affectionate kiss. Something so intimate as a kiss was used as an act of betrayal. What heart wrenching agony Jesus may have experienced when Judas twisted a gesture that was meant to represent love and trust to one of betrayal and selfishness.

Jesus Condemned by the Religious Leaders

Jesus was taunted being blindfolded and hit on the face, and asked to prophecy about who was going to hit him next. How evil and cynical. Beaten and spat upon. He’s condemned to die. In spite of all of this, Jesus’ displays of humility toward those who brutalized him were astounding and beautiful.

Summary

1. The Love of God will never change
2. You have to admit to be legit, 43
3. Is Jesus worthy of the Oil of your life?, 3
4. Don’t let your situation dictate your salvation, 69-72
5. Don’t use the kiss of flesh to lead to hiding your mess, 44-45
6. Live by the will of the Lord, not your own,
7. Jesus wants to sup with you. Open to Him. 13-17
8. Don’t let your life betray Christ, 10-11
9. Let the humility of Christ shape your life, 56, 61
10. Jesus is food for the soul, 22-26
11. Let the Lord break you to make you, 72

Signs of the End of the Age

“For many shall come in my name saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many,” Mark 13:6. Its important to know God for yourself so that when the deceivers come you can discern what is truth and what isn’t. When the disciples didn’t know something, they asked Jesus in simple questions. We need to be in the habit of just asking questions. Wars and rumours of wars are coming, famines and natural disasters are coming. But we shall not be moved by these things, rather see them as signs. While the Lord doesn’t want us to stress about our problems, He doesn’t want us focus on them either, but find a balance in Him.

Jesus Warns of Persecution

Because of our faith in Jesus, we will be hated. We’ll even have family members turn against us, but the only One we really have is Jesus who will never turn His back on us. If we continuously remain faithful to Jesus, we will make it to the end to experience salvation.

The Detestable Idol That Brings Misery

You see so many false prophets now a days. You can’t be surprised because its been spoken that its going to happen. Yet to witness it first hand is astounding. The enemy is in the midst really trying to steer people away. There are those who are following others who really believe their half truths. The enemy is moving and tries to cover his tracks even with the holy scriptures! If you aren’t abiding in Jesus, you can easily be swayed into his lies. People think there is a grey area in life, however with God its either black or white, good or evil. You can’t be both at once. You can’t fully give your life and have convenience too. We get everything that we want, whenever we want it in this society. We need to be willing to lay down our own desires and be led by God. Its hard to let go of your comforts, but its necessary to be stretched to become more one with God.

The Appearing of the Son of Man

Jesus will come back with great power and glory to gather His elect from the Earth.

The Parable of the Fig Tree

While neither Jesus, nor the angles or us as disciples know when Jesus Himself will come, we can know by the “signs” of the rise of many false prophets, the continuing intensity of seismic events of epic proportion, famines and wars will give us an indicator as to the season that He will come.

Live Always Ready for His Appearing

We need to be found doing His will, not just twiddling our thumbs, waiting for Him to come back and not being effective for Him.

A Parable of a Man Who Left on a Journey

Watch. Jesus said watch to Peter, Andrew, James & John. Watch. Jesus says watch to all of us too. Watch over your heart posture, don’t allow yourself to fall asleep spiritually. The things of this world, the cares of this life lull you to sleep. Check your heart. Its serious. This Earth is not all there is. There is a restoration of all things and we are in the very last moments leading into it.

Summary

1. You can’t fully give your life and have convenience too, 11
2. If you feel, then its your will, 11
3. Watch your walk or your soul will be lost, 37
4. Don’t be seduced or your soul will be cut loose, 22
5. We’re in the last days so watch and pray, 33
6. Hear His word fast while it lasts, 10
7. Don’t worry about packing your bag, because He’s coming real & fast, 15-17
8. Don’t let family ties turn your from Christ, 12-13
9. Don’t underestimate the hate for Jesus sake, 13
10. Be not persuaded by false prophets, 5-6
11. Don’t plan let the Holy Ghost lead, 11

The Parable of the Tenants

God planted a nation (vineyard) and dressed it well, setting judges (tenants) over the people to maintain the nation. When the nation began to transgress God’s ways, He sent servants (prophets) to point them back to God in righteousness. However, the nation persecuted these prophets even to the point of death, one after the other. Finally, God determined that He’d send His only Son, for He thought that they would revere Him. However, they brutally murdered Him. Jesus told this parable about the priests, religious scholars and leaders, who sought to kill Him.

Paying Taxes to Caesar

The Pharisees and religious elite try to make Him fail at every turn, but they don’t realize that they are proving the point of the parable He told about the parable of the tenants. Whose image was on the coin? That of Cesar. So Jesus said give to Cesar what belongs to him and to God what belongs to Him. Don’t allow the image of Cesar to overtake your heart, but rather, let the image of God be upon your heart.

A Question about Marriage

The Sadducees were another of the prominent religious groups of Jesus’ time which did not believe that there was a resurrection of the dead. They twisted one of the laws of Moses found in Deuteronomy 25:5-10 to support their religious doctrine. This particular law required a man to marry his brother’s widow in order to bear children for his deceased brother’s name. The Sadducees tried to undermine the reality of a resurrection of the dead by coming up with a scenario in which the wife was wed to several brothers who never gave her an heir. They thought it was silly to think that she would be the wife of all those men at the resurrection, so they, in their delusion, wrote off the concept of resurrection completely. Jesus said to the Sadducees that they were in utter error because they didn’t know the scriptures or the power of God. The spiritual reality is that there is a resurrection and once resurrected, such earthly things as marriage and espousal ownership are meaningless in that realm.

The Greatest Commandment

Deuteronomy 6:3-5 says:

3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey. ⁴ Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: ⁵ And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

Jesus, Son of David – Lord of David

David prophesied of the promised Christ many years before He came in Psalm 22 and Psalm 110:1. He peered into the future and saw the Messiah sitting on the right hand of God the Father. Jesus was telling the religious elite that He was both the descendant of David and the Lord of David.

Jesus Warns Against the Religious Scholars

The religious scholars were harped on the superficial and did not embrace the standards of mercy and truth. They loved accolades from men and to be recognized by men. Because they were tasked with the weighty and significant responsibility of being leaders of the people, to call them back to God, they will be stripped of their supposed honor and experience a greater damnation at the time of judgement.

Summary

1. Whose image is on your heart, 17
2. Be found doing the work not stealing the will, 2-7
3. Don’t be a hypocrite, 15
4. It doesn’t matter how much you cast in, its about the heart there in, 44
5. Beware of the Scribes who love to proclamate in your face, 38
6. Don’t play while the Lord’s away, 1
7. Don’t let Satan still or kill God’s will for you, 7
8. You can’t interpret the word of God with carnal understanding, 10-11, 24, 26, 29-31, 36-37
9. Love the Lord with all you’ve got, 30
10. There’s going to be a resurrection, 25-26