Jesus prays for you

Read:
John 17:1-26

If anyone’s prayers are to be answered, Jesus’ prayer to the Father is sure to be. Jesus asks to be glorified by the Father, to be able to fully express His goodness, to fully express God Himself. When God glorifies another it is always to demonstrate God Himself, not the individual.

Jesus had done all He was sent to do, and now Jesus was dependent upon the Father to do all that God desired to do. To truly be a sacrifice Jesus had to place himself completely into the hands of His Father.

Jesus’ concern is not for himself as he faces the cross, but for His disciples, and you, and I, and all His followers. Jesus prays for our protection from the evil one, by the power of His name. He asks that we be set apart, made distinct, by God’s word of truth. Jesus also prays that we be brought to unity, together with Him.

Our unity is not with the world, though we are not taken out of it. But our union is with God Himself. It is in an extraordinary relationship with God that the world will know His love that is only experienced through Jesus and was established through His sacrifice.

Just as Jesus placed Himself into the hands of His Father, will you trust him too, faithful to obey what He calls you to do?


Prayer:
• Thank God that He answers Jesus’ prayer for you.
• Confess your need for His protection.
• Listen to His truth as He distinguishes you from the world around you.
• Ask Him to display His love through the unity of your life with Him and others.
• Thank Him for the incredible gift of displaying His glory through your life.

Meditate:

John 17:22-23
I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

The trial of eternity

Read: John 18:1-11; Luke 22:66-23:25; Mark 15:16-20; Matt 27: 32-56

Jesus was arrested and His trial immediately began very early in the morning. The trial of all eternity, that took place in three courts, was over by mid-morning. Jesus allowed rulers that He had established to condemn Him, soldiers that He had knit together in their mother’s womb to beat Him mercilessly then nail Him to a tree that He created, and carried to the hill.

Jesus experienced the rejection of His followers, the pressure of arrogant men, the pain of senseless beatings, the humiliation of a naked crucifixion, but His heart breaks and he cries out because He is separated from His Father (Matt 27:46) for the first time in His existence.

Restoring your relationship with God is the reason He went to the cross. The pain of the brokenness of that relationship is what cost Him his life. There is no life apart from the Father, because He is the source of all Life. When Jesus died, the earth shook to exclaim, “He was the son of God.”


Prayer:

• Thank God that He loved the world so much to send His son to die for it.
• Confess that your sin required Jesus’ death on the cross.
• Listen to His spirit as He shows you the cross He died on
• Ask Him to help you never loose sight of the cross
• Thank Him for loving you so much.

Meditate:

Isa 53:5-6
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

A covenant of hope!

Read:
John13:1-20; Matt 26:17-30; Mark 14:27-41; Luke 22: 24-62

God had made a covenant with His people long ago in a desert where He gave them the Law, the unattainable Commandments for them to live by. A covenant was established by God with Moses and sealed by the sacrifice of blood. However, this old covenant only lead people into the guilt of their sin for breaking God’s Commandments. Breaking the covenant required new sacrifices.

Jesus establishes a new covenant that fulfills the old one and brings hope to us today. His life became the sacrifice required. In His death, His flesh was broken and His blood shed for the forgiveness of our sin. This is a covenant of forgiveness that is sealed by His blood and is symbolized in the act of communion. It is in a relationship with Jesus now that we find our hope.

Even in this, Jesus continued to demonstrate the importance of humble service as He washed the feet of the disciples. He brings strength to our weaknesses as He prayed for Peter (Lk 22:32) though He knew he would deny Him. He demonstrates His control over the situation as he walks into the hands of His accusers fully aware of what lay ahead of Him.

He wants His followers to believe in Him. Not blindly, but connecting His sovereignty with the realities around us (Jn 13:19). He is at work in the world around you today. Do you recognize the hope He brings to your life today?


Prayer:
• Thank God that He desires to bring hope into your life.
• Confess your dependence upon Him for your hope – to make it through the doubts and darkness that your days can bring.
• Listen to Him as He calls you to commune with Him in this covenant of hope.
• Ask Him to be your strength today and to fill your heart with the hope that only He can provide.
• Thank Him for being your only source of hope.


Meditate:
Heb 6:19-20
We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf.

God Glorifies His Son through Sacrifice

Read:
John 12: 20-50; Matt 26:1-16

Jesus knows now is the time for which He has come. This is the culmination of His time on earth. God is about to glorify Himself, through His Son, in an astonishing way to demonstrate the extraordinary love He has for His creation. Jesus reinforces the values of the Kingdom of God that He has spent the last 3 years building into His followers. Values of self-sacrificing service, giving up ones own life for the benefit of others (v 25-26). God Himself confirmed Jesus’ life, message and purpose once again. The Father is pleased to multiply His Glory upon His Son and Jesus declared that as He is lifted up, on the cross and in our lives, He would continue to affect peoples lives for the rest of time (v32).

Even after such a great confirmation by the Father, Jesus remained under complete submission to Him. He continues to show that He is in the world as one who had been sent (v44). Jesus also acknowledges the level of His submission to the Father, for He never spoke on His own, God always told Him what to say and how to say it (v49). If Jesus, as God’s son, was that submissive to the Father, how much of your life are you willing to submit to God’s control?

Prayer:
• Thank God that Jesus demonstrated self-sacrificing service on your behalf to enable you to come into Gods presence even now.
• Confess the times you have not been willing to submit your speech, actions or attitudes to Gods will.
• Listen to the things He wants to change in you.
• Ask God that He forgive you and help you live the self-sacrificing life that Jesus demonstrated for you, so that you will become a “son of light” (v36)
• Thank God for the love He has shown you through His son Jesus.

Meditate:
John 12:49-50
For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say."

Faith and Prayer

Read:
Matt 21:18-22; Mark 11:20-33; Luke 20:1-19

Jesus teaches His disciples a lesson about faith and prayer. He knows what lies ahead for all His followers and they will need both the strength of faith and the power of prayer in the coming days. God works through people who are relying on Him alone, expecting Him to do things only He can do, for His benefit and glory.

Jesus teaches us that all of nature is to respond to God and bear fruit to His glory, and that prayers to this end can move any mountain we face. Through our faith in Him we can see Him respond to our prayers.

Often, Jesus’ authority is questioned. He was doing things that could only be done because He was God, and yet some were still unwilling to believe He was who He was. Sometimes we think “this is too hard for God, He would never do this in my life” and we opt for the easy way out, saying “we don’t know” just like the teachers who challenged Him. Will you let Jesus be God in your life and give Him the authority to do what He wants to?



Prayer:

• Thank God that He is able to do anything He desires
• Confess the times you have not believed He was who He said He was in your life.
• Listen to Him tell you how He wants you to trust Him today.
• Ask Him to increase your faith as you commit to obey Him.
• Thank Him for being faithful even when you are not.

Meditate:

Luke 20:17-18
"'The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone'?
Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed."

Jesus cleanses His temple

Read:
Matt 21:12-17; Mark 11:12-19; Luke 19:45-48

Consider:
Jesus entered the temple and did not like what He saw. It was not the place it was intended to be. The temple was to be a sacred place where God’s Spirit resided and where God would meet with His people. The temple was a holy place, a place of prayer. A place set a part for God’s purpose, but it had been infiltrated by the activities and purposes of the world.

1 Cor 6:19 says “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.” Jesus desires to inhabit our hearts. Our hearts are to be the place we meet with Him, set a part and belonging to Him. It is in our hearts where His life springs new in us.

If Jesus were to cleanse your temple, what would he over turn and throw out? Where and how has the world infiltrated your own heart. Are there things in your life that you would not want to be in the same “room” with Jesus?

Jesus declares His house to be a house of prayer. If you were to turn your life into a house of prayer, how would your life be different than it is today? Prayer is how we communicate with God, we tell Him what is on our heart and listen to what is on His heart. Our lives are to be a temple for Him, a place for Him, and He wants to communicate with us through prayer.


Pray:

• Thank God that we can know Him.
• Confess the things that He wants to cleanse out of your life.
• Listen to how He wants to communicate with you.
• Ask Him to make your heart a temple that honors Him.
• Thank Him for making your heart a temple for Him.

Meditate:

1 Cor 6:19-20
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

"... The Stones Will Cry Out"

Read:
Matt 21:1-11; Mark 10:46-52; Luke 19:28-44; John 12:12-19

“Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests” declared the angels at Jesus birth (Lk 2:14). Now the people of Jerusalem proclaim “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest” (Lk 19:38). Like striking bookends of praise to begin and conclude Jesus’ time on earth.

No one deserves more praise than Jesus!

The King of the universe is coming! As if the King of all creation were coming to His own coronation, the jubilant cries of all of nature would resound with praise. As the psalmist wrote; “All you have made will praise you, O Lord;” (Ps 145:10) or Isaiah the prophet who declared 700 years earlier as he spoke of the anticipated salvation that God would one day bring; “the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.” (Isa 55:10) – and this was that day.

Jesus, the King was entering Jerusalem for the very last time as the man/God. He was making His way to establish the new creation. He who created the heavens and earth in the beginning, from beyond the heavens, was making His way to His next creative space on a hill and from under the earth where creation would happen again. This is where a covenant of salvation would be established and a ‘new Adam’ formed.

Though this new creation would be of a very different nature from the old creation, it was as though all the existing creation could feel the energy swelling as Jesus entered the holy city. By their very nature as ‘created ones’, the people on the roadside could not help but to be ‘caught up’ in the praise of the King as He passed by them. Though their hearts would soon turn dark and their cries of joy soon become shouts of violence, this day all creation welcomed their master into their presence.

Today, will you welcome Jesus the King into your life with praises as He comes to create His covenant to new life in you?

Prayer:
• Thank God that His Son was both the sovereign of all creation, the King of Kings, and also the only one who could save you.
• Confess to Him where you have not been open to His presence in your life.
• Listen to His Spirit as he shows you the things in your life that He would like to use to display His glory.
• Ask Him to change you, to heal you and give Him the areas of your life that He has just shown you.
• Thank Him for His love for you that draws you to Him.

Meditate:

Isa 55:11-13
“... My word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.
Instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree,
and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.
This will be for the LORD 's renown,
for an everlasting sign,
which will not be destroyed."

Passion Week ~ Easter Devotional 2009

Easter is my favorite holiday of the year, it is truly worth celebrating. It is more than just a day when we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection, but it is a whole week leading up to that glorious day that leaves us with a glimpse of eternity. It is a week of pageantry, and passion. The culmination of God’s incarnation wrapped up in betrayal, denial and pain. It is an emotional week of intense love, that leads to the deep despair of death but ends with the exhilaration of life and the revelation of God’s enormous grace

Once again this year, the Lord would not let me free until I had prepared this for you. This is my gift to you. As I have worked to write this for you this Easter, my prayer is that you will have a passionate encounter with Jesus, our living Lord and King, this week. This guide is designed to help you walk through this coming week with Jesus, remembering what He did for you.

As you read, pray, think and meditate, may God’s Spirit draw you close to Him. May you hear His heart beat for you. May you feel the scars He bore, may His presence be as close as His breath on your neck. As you walk with Jesus on the road to the Fathers grace may you be captured by His love for your life.