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Next week is Holy Week. Beginning with Palm Sunday, Holy Week is the eight days that give us the opportunity to contemplate Jesus’ sacrifice. This week was filled with the events we’ve been teaching about on Sunday mornings. The Last Supper, Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, the betrayal by Judas… On Friday, Jesus was crucified on the cross and buried, but Sunday… Sunday He was no longer dead because He arose. Each day gives us an opportunity to reflect on Jesus, His love for us, and what He has done for us.  

 

What’s truly remarkable about Holy Week is the number of prophecies that were fulfilled. Just as many Old Testament prophets had foretold, not only about His birth and life but especially about this particular week – the week we call Holy Week. There is no question that Jesus came to earth to save us, to defeat death, to prove that He is the answer for forgiveness. What we see during Holy Week is how intentional and purposeful Jesus was in His every single step toward the cross. 

 

Mountainview Holy Week Devotional

Let’s take a journey together this week. We’ve chosen a wonderful devotional from YouVersion. It’s “Holy Week: Through the Eyes Of” by Jim Cymbala. I think it would be great for as many people as possible to read the devotional and the scripture each day of Holy Week.  

 

You can access the devotional by following this Holy Week Devotional link

 

Good Friday: The Stations of the Cross

We’re planning something different for Good Friday. We invite you and your entire family to come any time between 6:00 and 8:00 pm. We will have eight “stations” for you to journey through as a family, a group, or as an individual. At each station, there will be scripture to read, a question to ponder, a prayer to pray, and at some stations, there will be something to do. 

 

Our goal for this “stations” approach is to help all of us move beyond detached sentimentalism about Jesus toward faithfulness, servanthood, and commitment. The journey Jesus made to the cross was the most important journey ever made…period. His suffering and death were as real as the hole in the ground that held His cross erect… God’s unfathomable love, His commitment to humanity, and His limitless grace were and are forever revealed on the cross. 

 

Plan to join us on Friday night between 6:00 and 8:00. What I enjoy most about Good Friday is the reminder that death is not the end of the story. It’s part of it, but it’s not the end… I hope to see you there. 

 

Easter Sunday: The Great Awakening

On Easter Sunday, resurrection day, we are going to ask the question, “Where is Jesus now?” Matthew’s gospel gives us a huge hint as to the answer. Like pretty much everyone else, I have considered Jesus’ resurrection and His great commission as two separate parts of His story, but the last words of Matthew 28 have caused me to reconsider. At least four really important truths may change your mind as well. Join us in person or online at 9:00 or 10:40 am as we celebrate Jesus, our Risen Savior!

 

633: Seek First

Matthew 6:33 is our church verse for 2022. We’ve been challenged to pick 6:33 am or pm as a reminder to pray, “God, what are You doing in me and around me?” And second, “God, how can I join You?” This is a great prayer for us, especially around Easter. 

 

How about it? Are you paying attention to what God is doing in you and around you? This is the entire point of the resurrection. One of my favorite authors, N.T. Wright wrote The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus’ Crucifixion. He says, 

 

“The point of trying to understand the cross better is not so that we can congratulate ourselves for having solved an intellectual crossword puzzle, but so that God’s power and wisdom may work in us, through us, and out into the world that still regards Jesus’s crucifixion as weakness and folly.”

 

Whatever you do this week, be sure to be God’s power and wisdom in the world. 

 

Grace & Peace!

Pastor Tom