Holy Week 2008 -- lftd.org

03.14.08: Light4theDay - "Holy Week 2008" Holy Week (2) (Viet) (<<) (>>)
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("Pray To Receive Christ")

-- John 11:25-26
+ "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26 "And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?" +

-- Matthew 28:6
He is not here; He has risen, just as He said. ...

-- 1 Corinthians 15:14-17
14 And if Christ has not been Raised,
our Preaching is Useless and so is your Faith.
17 And if Christ has not been Raised, then your Faith is Useless,
and you are Still under Condemnation for your sins.

Our old history ends with the Cross;
Our new history begins with the Resurrection. -- W. Nee

He became what we are that He might make us what He is.
-- St. Athanasius, 295-373

We live and die; Christ died and lived! -- John Stott

The resurrection gives my life meaning and direction and the
opportunity to start over no matter what my circumstances.
-- Robert Flatt

+ The Resurrection of Jesus +

This is the key event in the New Testament, as important for the Christians as the deliverance from Egypt was for the Jews. All Four Gospels report that the body of Jesus, crucified on a Friday and placed in a tomb, was not in the tomb on the following Sunday. The Gospels do not explain how the event occurred, only that it did, and that many people saw the Risen Jesus. When the women went to the tomb on the Sunday morning, an angel at the empty tomb told them, “He is not here, He has Risen!” (Mat. 28:6)

Jesus’ body was somehow changed -- He was like Himself enough to be recognized, yet changed enough that two of His disciples did not immediately know Him (Luke 24:13–27). Some of the disciples thought He was only a phantom, but clearly He had a body of flesh: He told them, (Luke 24:39 - "Look at My hands and My feet. It is I Myself! Touch Me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.") He also ate some food to show He was Truly Alive, not just a ghost. After some days He Blessed His disciples and Ascended into Heaven (see Ascension).

The New Testament never tires of speaking of the Risen Jesus. While Jesus was admired as a Teacher, Healer, and Miracle worker, the Key event was that after dying a horrible death on the Cross, God Raised Him from the dead.

+++ Had the disciples not Sincerely Believed that their dead Master had been Raised up by God, Christianity would not have Spread across the globe. +++

+ Ascension of Jesus + (Thursday May 1, 2008)

The Ascension of Our Lord, which occurred 40 days after Jesus Christ rose from the dead on Easter Sunday. On this day, the risen Christ, in the sight of His apostles, ascended bodily into Heaven (Luke 24:51; Mark 16:19; Acts 1:9-11).

All four Gospels report that Jesus Rose from the dead and Appeared to His disciples. Only Luke reports what became of Him afterward: “Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into Heaven” (Luke 24:51). and in Mark 16:19-20 - "19 After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was taken up into heaven and He sat at the right hand of God. 20 Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it."

In Acts 1:10–11, Luke adds more detail to this account: “While they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into Heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into Heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into Heaven.’ ” This is known as the Ascension, and it is mentioned several times in the New Testament. The early Christians believed that, just as Jesus had left the earth to ascend to Heaven, He would soon return from Heaven and take His followers Home.

+ Lent +
2008: Begins Wednesday, February 6, ends Saturday, March 22
(2009: Begins Wednesday, February 25, ends Saturday, April 11)

Some churches observe the Forty days before Easter as Lent,
a time of Soul-Searching and Penitence. The practice dates from around A.D. 300 and was based on Jesus’ Forty days of Fasting during the time He was tempted by Satan (Matt. 4:2; Luke 4:2). In earlier times, Christians did fast during Lent, but later the idea developed of some form of self-denial -- “giving up something for Lent,” as many people phrase it.

Lent is the period of fasting, penitence, and self-denial traditionally observed by Christians in preparation for Easter. In Western Christianity, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, six and a half weeks before Easter. It ends on Holy Saturday, the last day of Holy Week, which immediately precedes Easter Sunday.

+ Holy Week + (Mar 16-23, 2008)

This is the week from Palm Sunday (03/16) to the following Easter Sunday (03/23), and includes the days known as Maundy Thursday (03/20) and Good Friday (03/21). In some ways it was the most important week in Jesus’ life, with such critical events as His Cleansing the temple, the Last Supper, His Arrest, Trial, and Crucifixion, and, on Easter, His Resurrection from the dead. Because the New Testament connects these key events with mankind’s Salvation, Christians made their celebration a significant part of worship.

+ Palm Sunday + (03/16/2008)

The Sunday before Easter commemorates Jesus’ welcome by crowds carrying palm branches as He made His way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet Him, shouting, “Hosanna!” and “Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord!” (John 12:13). This is known as His “Triumphal Entry.” By the following Friday He was crucified. Some churches still stage processions using palm branches. (Mark 11:1-11, Matthew 21:1-11, Luke 19:28-44, and John 12:12-19).

+ Between Sunday and Thursday + (03/17-19/2008)

The days between Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday are known as Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday and Holy Wednesday (Spy Wednesday or Great Wednesday). During these days, various important events took place according to the gospels, such as Jesus's conversations with disciples and Jewish religious leaders, and Judas's preparation to betray Jesus.

The meaning and purpose of Jesus' teaching, sacrifice, death and Resurrection can be summary in:

+ (2 Corinthians 5:15-21) +
15 And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again. 16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.
++ 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! ++
18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

+ Maundy Thursday (03/20/2008)

The Thursday before Easter commemorates the night before Jesus’ Crucifixion. It was an eventful night: Jesus’ Last Supper with His disciples, the agony in Gethsemane, the Arrest. Maundy comes from the Latin word mandatum, meaning “Commandment.” In John’s account of the evening, Jesus told His disciples to Serve and Love one another,

The Lord's Supper (Mark 14:22-26; Luke 22:14-20; 1Cor.11:23-25) (Matthew 26:26-30) + "26 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to His disciples, saying, "Take and eat; this is My body." 27 Then He took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. 28 This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in My Father’s kingdom." 30 When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives."

(Matthew 26:41) + "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak." . (Mark 14:38; Eph.6:18; 1Tes 5:17)

(John 13:14) + "Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet."

(John 13:34) + “A New Commandment I give to you, that you Love one another; as I have Loved you, that you also Love one another.”

+ Good Friday + (03/21/2008)

In a way it is an odd name for a Sad day -- the day of Jesus’ Crucifixion. It came to be called “Good” because Jesus’ death on the Cross was regarded as the Perfect Sacrifice that Canceled Out human sin and Allowed man to be Reconciled to God.

(John 3:16) + "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."

(Romans 5:8-11) + "8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. 10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11 And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation."

+ Holy Saturday + (03/22/2008)

The following day, when Jesus was in the tomb, is sometimes called + Holy Saturday +

(1 Peter 3:18-19) + "18 For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, 19 through whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison."

+ Easter Sunday + (03/23/2008)

The celebration of the Resurrection of’ Jesus occurs every Sunday (which Christians came to call “the Lord’s Day”), and it was about a century before anyone began observing the annual event that came to be called Easter. It was first called Pascha, the Greek word for Passover, which was natural since Jesus’ death and Resurrection occurred near the Jewish Feast of Passover. The apostle Paul referred to Jesus as “our Passover Lamb” (1 Cor. 5:7). Jesus, called the “Lamb of God” several times in the New Testament, was regarded as the Perfect and Final Sacrifice for man’s sins.

(Matthew 28:6) + "He is not here; He has risen, just as He said. Come and see the place where He lay."

(1 John 4:9-10) + "This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."

(Romans 6:3-11) + "3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 5 If we have been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin -- 7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over Him. 10 The death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God. 11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus."

(In the year 325 the Council of Nicaea decreed that Easter would be celebrated each year on the Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox.)

-- John 3:16-17
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.

-- Romans 5:8
But God showed His Great Love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were Still sinners.

-- 1 Timothy 1:15-16
15 This is a True saying, and everyone should Believe it: Christ Jesus Came into the world to Save sinners -- and I was the worst of them all. 16 But that is why God had Mercy on me, so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of His Great Patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will Realize that they, too, can Believe in Him and Receive Eternal Life.

-- John 11:25-27
25 Jesus said to her, "I am the Resurrection and the Life. He who Believes in Me will Live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and Believes in Me will never die. Do you Believe this?" 27 "Yes, Lord," she told Him, "I Believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to Come into the world."

-- John 5:21
For just as the Father Raises the dead and Gives them Life, even so the Son Gives Life to whom He is Pleased to give it.

-- John 6:40
For My Father’s Will is that everyone who Looks to the Son and Believes in Him shall have Eternal Life, and I will Raise him up at the last day.

-- Psalm 103:1-5
1 Bless the LORD, O my soul;
And all that is within me, Bless His Holy Name!
2 Bless the LORD, O my soul,
And Forget not all His Benefits:
3 Who Forgives all your sins,
Who Heals all your diseases,
4 Who Redeems your Life from destruction,
Who Crowns you with Lovingkindness and Tender Mercies,
5 Who Satisfies your desires with good things,
So that your youth is Renewed like the eagle’s.

But from this earth, this grave, this dust,
My God shall raise me up, I trust. ~Walter Raleigh

He takes men out of time and makes them feel eternity.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection, not in
books alone, but in every leaf in spring-time. ~Martin Luther

Let the resurrection joy lift us from loneliness and weakness
and despair to strength and beauty and happiness.
~Floyd W. Tomkins

And He departed from our sight that we might return to our heart,
and there find Him. For He departed, and behold, He is here.
~St Augustine

The story of Easter is the story of God's wonderful window of
divine surprise. ~Carl Knudsen

+ When is Easter? +

+ Why does the date of Easter move? +

Easter is called a moveable feast because the date of Easter changes every year. Easter Sunday can fall on any date from March 22 to April 25.

The reason for this variation in the date of Easter is based on the lunar calendar (moon) rather than our more well-known solar one.

Easter always falls on the first Sunday following the full Moon (the Paschal Full Moon) either on or after the Spring Equinox (March 20 or 21). If the Full Moon falls on a Sunday then Easter is the next Sunday.

+ What are the different names for Easter? +

In many European languages the name Easter comes from the word Passover.
Pascha in Greek and Latin,
Pasqua in Italian,
Pacques in French,
Pascua in Spanish
......