HCC Monthly Harvest Seed
Mark 15:42-47 (NLT) - This all happened on Friday, the day of preparation, the day before the Sabbath. As evening approached, 43 Joseph of Arimathea took a risk and went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. (Joseph was an honored member of the high council, and he was waiting for the Kingdom of God to come.) 44 Pilate couldn’t believe that Jesus was already dead, so he called for the Roman officer and asked if he had died yet. 45 The officer confirmed that Jesus was dead, so Pilate told Joseph he could have the body. 46 Joseph bought a long sheet of linen cloth. Then he took Jesus’ body down from the cross, wrapped it in the cloth, and laid it in a tomb that had been carved out of the rock. Then he rolled a stone in front of the entrance. 47 Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joseph saw where Jesus’ body was laid.
One of the most overlooked parts of the Easter story is Saturday.
We focus a great deal of attention on Friday and the Crucifixion- with good reason.
We focus a great deal on Sunday and the Resurrection, with good reason.
Very little is said publicly or in the Bible about what Jesus was doing on Saturday.
Saturday was the day In-Between – It is known as Silent Saturday.
~ Max Lucado - God made himself heard on Friday. He tore the curtains of the temple, opened the graves of the dead, rocked the earth, blocked the sun of the sky, and sacrificed the Son of Heaven. Earth heard much of God on Friday.
Nothing on Saturday. Jesus is silent. God is silent. Saturday is silent.
Remember that just before Jesus died, He declared – It is Finished!
The work of Salvation and redemption had been completed.
Just as God rested when He had finished creation Jesus rested from the finished work of the cross.
Saturday is the day after the cross, but before the resurrection. The day when everything feels silent.
The Pharisees were busy sealing the tomb. The Soldiers were busy guarding the tomb; but Jesus was silent. He was resting. He descended into Sheol to set those who had followed Him free.
Ephesians 4:10 (NLT) - And the same one who descended is the one who ascended higher than all the heavens, so that he might fill the entire universe with himself.
Christ descended from Heaven and became a man. God gave His one and only son to bring us life through His death and resurrection.
Saturday was the day when everything fell silent, it seemed like all hope was gone. It was the day when the people who loved Jesus were left grieving, waiting, wondering if any of His promises were true.
The work that Jesus did on Friday and Sunday was important but just as important was the work that Silent Saturday was doing in His disciples.
Just because it felt hopeless didn’t mean that hope was gone.
God was still working.
While the disciples were weeping, while the world thought that it had won, God was preparing for resurrection.
There is incredible value in the Silent times in our life. While we are called to do, we are also called to be still.
The older I get the more I really like quiet. We all need quiet we all require quiet.
We all need the quiet that allows us to rejuvenate and the type of quiet that allows us to contemplate.
The disciples in the Silence of that Saturday; that Sabbath – were remembering all that Jesus had taught them.
We need quiet to think and to comprehend.
Silent Saturday gives us a time of quiet to really think about all that Jesus work on the cross was about. What His sacrifice really meant.
Quiet is important. As a matter of fact, I have found that in the car I will actually turn down the radio so that I can think and concentrate and focus better.
In stillness there is more focus and greater clarity.
We live in a very noisy society. We always have things that always keep us on – Phones, TV’s, Radios.
Very few people really know how to just sit in silence and stillness.
Many of us have forgotten how to sit in the presence of the Lord and just be silent and just be still. To not talk.
Too often we confuse praying with doing and saying but being in the presence of the Lord also just involves silence.
Silence allows us to really hear what is being said. You really get to know someone in the silent times.
Just because it is quiet doesn’t mean that nothing is happening.
The greatest power moves of God often happen in the silence.
Sometimes in the silence the more serious things are.
I found as a parent that silence was golden in three very powerful ways:
One - just sitting together in the quiet could be very bonding. Some of our best times were when the kids were little and they would just snuggle.
Two – when I was disciplining the kids I found early on that I didn’t need to raise my voice. They discovered that the quieter I became the quicker they better listen.
Third – There were times that people were messing with my children that I would just step in and didn’t need to say much. It was understood that you don’t touch my kids.
On Saturday Jesus was silent– He had said all that needed said on Friday. The message was already sent.
I have found that many times Jesus is silent because He is allowing us to just talk.
There are times, I think, we misunderstand the silence of the Lord. It’s not that He is silent, it is that He is listening. When we talk to God we wind up working many things out while He listens. He speaks without saying a word.
God doesn’t always try to fill the silence. He didn’t on Saturday. It was time to rest.
Quiet is necessary for our peace of mind, it is necessary to think about things and through things. It is necessary to contemplate. It is necessary for rest.
We need to learn to become comfortable with the silence.
God is able to do powerful things in silence.
If you read the Word of God closely you will be surprised to find out how much Salvation and Stillness go hand in hand.
I think that many times we miss out on what God is doing because we don’t get still and silent to notice what God is doing.
Stillness is where we can take in the beauty.
Stillness is where we are able to process life.
Stillness is where we are able to really take in and observe all that God is doing in all of His glory.
We find God, not in the midst of the intensity and busyness, but in the stillness.
I have found that God works through seasons. Including seasons of silence.
Ecclesiastes 3:7 - a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,
Seasons of quiet, Seasons of waiting, seasons of stillness.
Silent Saturday was just important as Crucifixion Friday and Resurrection Sunday.
Silent Saturdays. We all have those seasons.
The day between the struggle and the solution; the question and the answer; the offered prayer and the answer of the prayer.
Saturday’s silence is hard. Is God angry? Did I disappoint him?
God knows Jesus is in the tomb, why doesn’t He do something?
Or, in our situations -- God knows our career is struggling, our kids are hurting, our finances are in the pit, our marriage is in a mess.
Why doesn’t He act? What are you supposed to do until He does?
You do what Jesus did. Lie still. Stay silent. Trust God.
After the crucifixion there was a much-needed stillness, after the stillness there is Resurrection!
May you and your Family be filled with the Blessing of the Lord. Know that you are Loved and may you have a wonderful Resurrection Season!
Pastor Marvin & Dawn
Image by Matthias Groeneveld from Pixabay
HCC Monthly Harvest Seed
1 Peter 1:18-19 (NLT) - For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. 19 It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.
Resurrection Sunday reminds us of the open and empty tomb that our Lord and Savior Jesus won the victory over death, hell and the grave. – Today I want to talk about the cross. Specifically, what the cross brought forth – that is the precious blood of Jesus.
Most people don’t like the sight of blood. Most don’t like to see their own blood or the blood of others. For the Christian we understand that the Bible tells us that the life is in the blood.
Without the blood there is no life in the natural and without the Precious Blood of Jesus being applied to our lives there is no life in the spiritual.
While we remember the Resurrected Jesus today it is also important to remember the Crucified, spotless Lamb of God. Slain from the foundation of the world so that all men and women can be saved. I want to remind us that the blood is a great many things to all of us it is – THE BLOOD OF….
First of all, it is the Blood of Forgiveness
Hebrews 9:22 - In fact, according to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified with blood. For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.
1 John 1:9 (AMP) - If we [freely] admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just [true to His own nature and promises, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us continually from all unrighteousness [our wrongdoing, everything not in conformity with His will and purpose].
Without the blood there is no forgiveness of sin. – It is the blood of Jesus that makes forgiveness available to us.
Resurrection Sunday has a way of allowing us to look back.
Many people look back over their lives and all that they see is regret. When we look back as Christians we are filled with Thankfulness.
Because of the blood we are no longer what we were. – We are no longer sinners we are now saints of God and Children of God.
His blood is the blood of cleansing. The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life. – All of this because of the blood.
We who are deserving of death have been forgiven of all of our sin and now have the promise of eternal life. Because of the blood of Jesus our relationship with God the Father has been restored. We once were distanced from God but now we are brought near by the blood of Christ. Sin brought separation… forgiveness restored relationship
It is the blood of peace Colossians 1:19-20 (NLT) - For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ,and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.
The blood of Jesus was shed because without it we would still be enemies of God. Don’t miss this God made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means Christ’s blood. One of the names of God is God our peace. Jehovah shalom. The peace that comes through Jesus is known as a peace that passes understanding.
Before Jesus everything in all of creation was under the curse. It is the blood of Jesus that redeems and restores everything that had been tainted and destroyed by sin. The peace that Jesus brings encompasses everything.
Shalom- peace, harmony, wholeness, completeness, prosperity, welfare and tranquility - “make it good”, “shall surely pay”, “make full restitution” or to “restore”. The ancient Hebrew meaning of shalom was “to make something whole”. Not just regarding practical restoration of things that were lost or stolen. But with an overall sense of fulness and completeness in mind, body and estate. Wholeness and Well-being. The Blood of Jesus first of all brings us peace with God but with it comes all kinds of benefits that bless us completely.
It is the blood of our victory.
Revelation 12:11a - And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony,
It through the blood that we become overcomers and conquerors in Christ Jesus. 1 Corinthians 15:57 - “But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Colossians 2:15 - “And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” It is the blood of Jesus that overcame death, hell and the grave.
It is the blood that continues to give us victory in these areas every day. Remember that we are being led in Triumph and from Glory to Glory. We go from one victory to the other. Resurrection Sunday reminds us that we are not victims. Even while Jesus was being beaten, wounded, ridiculed mocked and killed He was not a victim. – He could have called legions of angels to rescue Him. – Willingly Jesus laid down His life. He looked past the trial, torture, pain and death knowing that He was greater than it all.
His blood in our life is the blood of victory.
It is the Blood of Jesus
Hebrews 13:12 - And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.
Luke 22:20 - In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
This was personal to Jesus. This is personal to us.
Jesus shed His blood for you and me.
Years ago, when the movie the Passion of the Christ came out. The actors and then the audience were moved to tears when they performed and witnessed the brutality and reality of what Christ endured. FOR US. FOR ME.
The blood came with a name attached – Jesus. The blood of the Messiah, the Savior of the world. It is not nameless blood. It is the precious blood of Jesus.
Mary, the Apostle John, Peter and many others saw what He did. It was personal, excruciating, painful, unbearable, humiliating, angering and overwhelmingly humbling for them.
This Resurrection Sunday my prayer is that for us this would become not just a thing that happened to somebody. But that was the blood of our Savior, Brother, Friend that was shed for us. – That alone changes everything.
Let’s make sure that this Resurrection season is as personal to us as it is to Jesus. To all my brothers and Sisters, remember that because HE lives, WE live also.
You are Loved
Pastor Marvin & Dawn
Image by Narupon Promvichai from Pixabay