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easter Tag

April 8, 2023

in Church, Discipleship, DTOTD, HCC

by Brendon

0 Comments

Holy Week

“I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father. In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.” His disciples said, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech! Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.”

– John 16:25-30

In a moment when Jesus is giving his final words for not only the disciples to learn from, but also the final words we see given to us to be able to learn also, Jesus gives a plain thought for the disciples to understand and to hear. 3 years….that is how long the disciples were with Jesus and on the eve before Jesus would go to the Cross, the disciples feel as though they finally get what Jesus has been trying to tell them all along. There is another moment in scripture when Jesus speaks plainly to the disciples, it was early in the ministry of Jesus, you can see it in Matthew 13. Jesus finished teaching multiple parables in this chapter and the disciples question him of why he always speaks in parables. Jesus then takes the chance to speak plainly to the disciples and he explains 2 of the parables that he speaks.

In this moment though, I ask myself the question – would I be relieved to understand what Jesus is saying to me as a disciple or would I continue questioning what Jesus is saying?

Think about it. Jesus is now telling the disciples that He has come for a purpose from his Father in heaven and now he is getting ready to go back to heaven to be with his Father. The disciples, even though seemingly relieved that they understand what Jesus is saying, most likely have the doubts still creeping in as to whether they can really trust Jesus in this moment or is it the dream that they have been living in coming to a screeching halt.

Jesus finishes John 16’s conversation that leads into a prayer where we see Jesus in some of his most vulnerable moments and to be honest, some of the most hopeful words that we can read.

” I do not ask for these only, but also for THOSE WHO WILL BELIEVE in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” – Jesus, John 17: 20-21

Read those words again slowly.

Jesus is praying for you.

Jesus is setting the stage for what is to come, not what is current. In all of the emotions and situation Jesus found himself in, Jesus stopped and prayed for you. Something that stands out in these words of Jesus: The call to be one together.

In a world full of chaos and war and anger and fear and arguments and distrust, Jesus calls those who believe to be one just like He is one with the Father. That implies some things that we all need to take in to account when it comes to the way that we interact with those around us.

First, it implies that we will think the best of one another and not the worst. We have all been guilty of this at some point. We see someone and we let the external voices and situations sway our opinions of those people. Now, this is not an argument for kum-bya with every single person that we interact with. Given that we live in an imperfect fallen world, there is not expectation for us to be able to attain a good status with all people. Jesus was not able to do that, in fact, Jesus if you really think about it, spoke words of truth that scared people away.

Second, it implies that we understand what Jesus is saying when he says we are together as he and the father are. In fairness, that is a lofty goal and one that really isn’t attainable. Because of our imperfection and the fall and the inherent sin that we have inside of our hearts, it makes it incredibly difficult for us to do this by our own strength or behaviors. I believe what Jesus is trying to get across in this situation is not that we can be one, but we can all be one in our abiding in Jesus as Jesus abides in the Father. This IS something that we can all work towards. Knowing that Jesus abided in his Father to give him strength and love and grace and power and direction, we too can look to Jesus as one to gain strength, love, grace, power and direction. As one, we can be with Jesus, and Jesus can be with us, just as Jesus was with the Father and the Father with him.

Finally, it implies that there is someone that will teach, preach or communicate the words of Jesus to us. This is something that we all have the ability to do, especially when we abide in Jesus and Jesus abides with us. Our purpose and mission on this earth while we are here is to be part of the reconciliation process of God’s creation, bringing those that will hear the words of Jesus and believe in them to create an everlasting relationship with Jesus. But that means that we as a whole, have a part in accomplishing or executing that purpose. Yes, the first calling of our being is to abide with Jesus. We are called to learn from Jesus, pray to Jesus, spend time with Jesus and love Jesus. The second calling however is to love our neighbors as ourselves. There is not much better than doing our best to love our neighbors by, showing Jesus’ love to them, serving them in love, forgiving them in love, helping them through a crisis in love. We have the ability to shares God’s love through his son Jesus in so many different ways, that it can almost feel overwhelming.

Whatever the means that we find the ability to share the love of Jesus with those around us, so that we can help the world believe in Jesus, we should. Even when it is hard, even when it seems impossible, even when the outcome is not what we hope for.

Just like Jesus taught in Matthew 13, the seeds are sown into the soils by those who are not afraid to speak the love of Jesus together.

On this the last post of Holy week, know that as Jesus is beaten, flogged, mocked, spat on and then eventually hung to a tree, Jesus do so for you and me. If we believe this message and accept this grace and love that Jesus offers to all that will believe, we have the ability and purpose to tell others about it.

Pray today that God will open up a space or a chance for you to share the love of Jesus with someone.

Also pray for the courage to speak boldly.

April 7, 2023

in Church, DTOTD, HCC

by Brendon

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Holy Week

” I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.”

Jesus, John 14:6

The supper was done. The one that was going to betray Jesus had left to do his part in fulfilling the prophecies and the plan to lead Jesus to the cross. The disciples sat with Jesus after the Passover meal was had and they listened to him give what is known as Jesus’ Farewell Discords. After talking with Roger Clark, he said, ” I think we should pay attention a little more to the last words than we do sometimes.”

What if I told you that even in the most intimate settings and the most intimate of conversations that Jesus had with his best friends and those that would continue his message of love and grace and freedom….that Jesus was thinking about you?

We see in John 14, the conversation starts with Jesus simply stating the truth. That the only way for anyone to get to the Father, God, is through him. That Jesus is the truth, meaning we should pay close attention and learn from everything that he says. That Jesus is life, meaning in Jesus there is a life of freedom that no one can experience unless coming to Him. For the disciples, I have a feeling there was a little bit more understanding to what he is saying, but for Thomas, Thomas asked the question that led Jesus to the answer he gives in 14:6.

” Thomas said to him, ‘ Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”

John 14:5

I have a feeling that if we were all truly honest with ourselves, we all are a bit more like Thomas that the rest of the disciples. We ask the questions to get better understanding. We doubt because we just don’t know if we can truly trust the words of Jesus. But in the end, when we have a transcending moment with Jesus, we fall to our knees and cry out ” My Lord and my God!!” John 20:28.

The Farewell Discord is one that is full of things to unpack and think about, but today, on what would have been the day that Jesus is betrayed and led to a crooked court…..ask yourself this question…..

What would you be thinking if you were the disciples? How would you react with some of what Jesus is saying after spending 3 years with him?

Those thoughts that you might have, might get blown away in just a little while when we get to John 17 where Jesus prays for you. Jesus knows you and sees you and knows every area of your life that you try to keep hidden.

But Jesus, never turns away.

April 6, 2023

in Church, Discipleship, DTOTD, HCC, Jesus, Local, Outreach

by Brendon

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Holy Week

” When He had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place he said to them, ” Do you understand what I have done to you?” – John 13:12

The Upper Room would have been a site to see. In John 13 we see Jesus with his disciples for a final meal not just together but for the last meal that Jesus will have on earth. It is filled with emotion. The crowds are closing in on Jesus and the ministry that He has started is getting ready to come to and end and the baton will be passed on to the people in the room he is eating with. We saw yesterday that Jesus got up from his place at the table, got down with a basin of water, and washed each of the disciple’s feet. There was a significance to that washing of the feet because Jesus took on the place of a servant to the disciples even though he was sitting at the head of the table. It was also significant because Jesus was setting the stage for his final true command for the disciples to carry on after he ascends into heaven.

” You call me teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also must wash one another’s feet. For i have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. ” – John 13:13-17

The disciple’s heads must be spinning at this point. They just had their teacher, and their rabbi gets down and wash their feet. The way a servant should. But now Jesus gets back to his place at the table he looks at them and tells them they need to wash each other’s feet. That Jesus’ example should be followed in the realm of serving those around you. What does serving have to do with this whole scene? What is Jesus trying to accomplish here in showing the disciples what it means to serve one another? Jesus answers this question this way:

” When he had gone out, Jesus said, ” Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at one. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I say to you, Where I am going you cannot come. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; just as i have loved you, you also are to love one another. BY THIS all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. ” John 13:31-35

If we love one another, we will serve one another. If we serve one another, that means we love one another, which will show the world that we are Jesus’ disciples. Jesus in this moment, knows that the betrayer has left and that Satan has filled the heart of one of the men that followed Jesus. So Jesus with the rest of his disciples answers maybe the question in which the disciples were asking after Jesus washed their feet and told them they also must wash one another’s feet to serve them. Jesus gives us the way people will know that we know Him. By the way we love one another. Jesus loves us so much, that in just a few short hours after this intimate moment with his closest people, He would be falsely arrested, brought to a crooked trial, beaten until almost dead and then would have to carry his own object of death to be nailed to it. Jesus shows us how to serve and how to love one another when He does not turn away from the end of his mission of restoring a relationship that was broken so long ago. When we serve one another, we are being the hands and feet of Jesus. When we get down from our high place at the table and learn what it means to serve all those around us, then we are showing the love of Jesus to them.

When we love one another, we serve one another. When we serve one another, we show the world that we are Jesus’ disciples because we love the way he loved us.

Today, on the night before Jesus dies for us on a tree, think about the love He has shown you not just from the cross, but also throughout your walks in life.

April 5, 2023

in Church, Discipleship, DTOTD, Jesus, Local

by Brendon

0 Comments

Holy Week

” Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” John 13:1

My son Grahm got out of bed last night, about 3 minutes after Amanda and I walked out of his room, came down to the living room where we were and just stood for a few seconds before asking a question that sparked a thought. Here is what Grahm asked:

” Dad, why dont you just watch the last episode to see who wins and then chose whether you watch the whole thing or go back and watch the whole season? “

Interesting thought from the almost 8-year-old sage. Why don’t we find out what happens at the end and then chose if we want to go to the beginning? I don’t think Grahm knew that he would be asking a question that defines what we see here in John 13, but he did.

Imagine Jesus at this moment in John 13. He has come to the moment in time that He was sent here for. Jesus knew the end was near. Jesus knew his betrayal, beating and death was close. So Jesus does what He needed to do, he takes his closest friends into a room and spends his last moments with them eating and celebrating the Passover. Then Jesus did something that no one thought he would do or even should do.

” Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things to his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples feet and top wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘ Lord, do you wash my feet?’ Jesus answered him, ” What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” Peter said to him, ‘ You shall never wash my feet.’ Jesus answered him, ” If I do not wash wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, ‘ Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!’ Jesus said to him, ” The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, ” Not all of you are clean.” ” John 13:3-11

Let’s just take a moment to understand the situation that Jesus and the disciples are in. Jesus is the only one in the room that knows what is about to happen and what he is about to endure. Jesus is the only one in the room that knows what the Devil is doing inside of one man’s heart. Jesus is the only one to know that the person that will start and lead the Church here on earth is actually going to deny knowing him 3 times in the coming hours. Jesus knew……that anyone that would hear and believe what is about to happen to him, is worth it.

The act of washing the disciple’s feet is one that Jesus should never have done. It was the job of a servant or a slave. Like Jesus mentions, the only thing that most people would need to clean is their feet because they didn’t have shoes or anything to keep the dirt from coating their feet. So Jesus not only did something that was probably absolutely disgusting, but Jesus is continuing to teach and lead the disciples in a way that makes them continue to unlearn what they have always known or done.

As we move through Holy Week, according to John, the story now shifts from what Jesus did or was doing to where Jesus is going. Jesus is going to start the last hours he would be here on earth. He would be going towards a wild and raucous crowd that would eventually lead him to his crucifixion. Jesus knew he was going towards a tree that he would have to carry through the streets of Jerusalem up to a rock shaped as a skull. Jesus knew the hour had come for him to sacrifice His life for all those that will believe in Him.

Holy Week does not just remember what Jesus did in the moments leading up to his death and resurrection…..

Holy Week reminds us that Jesus had you in mind.

Holy Week reminds us that in the moments leading to Jesus’ death – he had you in mind.

Holy Week reminds us that Jesus has you in mind, because his Spirit is now here with us.

Holy Week is Holy Week because Jesus knew He was going to die and He chose to follow through.

Jesus shows us in washing his disciple’s feet, that he will do anything for you, including getting down and dirty to make you clean.

April 4, 2023

in Church, Discipleship, DTOTD, HCC, Jesus, Local

by Brendon

0 Comments

Holy Week

Posted on April 4, 2023 by Brendon

” And Jesus cried out and said……” John 12:44a

Preachers. Some love them and some loathe them. There are different types of preachers all throughout the world and history. There are loud preachers, soft talkers, yellers, fire and brimstone, health and wealth and so many other ways to describe a preacher.

Jesus was a preacher. He was a very famous preacher, some might say arguably the best preacher of all time. I mean take a look at the sermon on the mount, some say if you want to know Jesus and what he was all about, read his sermon on the mount message. Seems to be the trendy thing right now…..I love reading Jesus’ teachings/preaching, I wish very greatly that I could ‘hear’ his sermons at some point or wish there were iPhones when he was alive there could be a secret society of people that keep all of his sermons that they were able to capture from wherever and whoever they could……ok, wishful thinking.

” When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them. Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: ‘ Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to who has the arm of the Lord been revealed?’ Therefore they could not believe. Again Isaiah said, ‘ he has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them’. Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him. Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in Him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory that comes from man rather than the glory that comes from God.” John 12:36b-43

Here we read a few things, first off we read that Jesus in the last moments with a crowd… hides himself from them? Why does he do that? Why in the last moments he has in a public place would he hide himself? Not a scholar by any means, but when you think about the weight that had to be on Jesus’ shoulders in this moment, after coming right out and saying that he is going to die and that he had to be lifted up on a tree…and knowing all of the things had had shown and done and healed in front of these people he was surrounded by and they still did not believe…..anyone would need a moment to breathe. Second, we see that this also fulfills another prophecy about Jesus that was written in the book of Isaiah. Another sign that the crowd did not realize at the time. Lastly, we see that there is fear amongst the people that did believe so they didn’t do anything with their belief. Imagine believing in something but because of the fear of what another group would do or say or ban you from doing……so you keep it hidden for no one to see and you never act upon that belief…..that sounds oddly familiar.

Then we read the last collection of words that Jesus gives before He celebrates the Passover with his disciples and those closest to him and his betrayal, arrest, and crucifixion.

” And Jesus cried out and said, ” Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. If anyone hears my words and does keep them, I do not judge him, for I did not come to the world to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment – what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father who told me.” John 12:44-50

Can you take a moment and read those words again and let them sink in……..breathe these words in…….

To be honest, I had a question about this text, and when asked it started an over an hour-long conversation about the entire Gospel of John. There is a lot in here to unpack, but let’s keep it simple.

First off, Jesus cries out. As a preacher, emotion is one thing that can be a great thing but also can be a hindrance. Because sometimes a preacher uses to much emotion that it takes away from the potential words he will say. On the other hand, emotion can evoke emotion in someone else which will allow what is being said to stick with the listener(s). So right off the bat, know that if Jesus was up in front of you or a group of people or He was preaching at church this Sunday and he was closing with these words…..His voice would be slowly getting louder and louder and louder until he might sound like he is yelling, but this is the main thing!

Second, Jesus here clarifies and cements why he is here. Jesus was sent to this place to save the world and not judge it. Jesus doesn’t discount or disregard the notion of judgement, but He, Himself came to this world to give the chance for saving to take place. There are lots of big philosophical words we could use, but simply put, Jesus came because the one who sent him Loves his creation and Jesus came to prove that to those who will hear the words and walk with Jesus the rest of their life.

Finally, Jesus wants us to know where He was sent from and who sent Him. Jesus and the Father are one, and Jesus is the majestic representation of the omniscient God that created everything through and with Jesus. Jesus wants us to know that He did not come from anywhere but the heavens and that the one in heaven is the one who has given him the strength and power and mission to bring all those that will believe to know and be known by the Father that Jesus knows.

If you do anything else today….rest in these words and know that Jesus desires to know you and for you be known. Jesus desires to walk with you as light in the darkness so that you may also become a light in the darkness. Know that Jesus is with God as the Holy Spirit is with us. Know that when you believe the words that Jesus says, you have a power in you that is released for you to be light in a dark world for all people to see.

Jesus. The reason for Holy Week.

easter Tag

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Holy Week

From the HCC Outreach Team: