Week 8 summary:
This week will finish half way
through reading the New Testament. What
we read this week will define Christianity – the crucifixion, death and
resurrection of Jesus. In fact, Halley's
Bible Handbook says that the five most important chapters in the Bible may be
Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24 and John 20-21 because they tell us of the
resurrection of Jesus – the capstone of the story of the entire Bible.
Day 1: Exodus 12:1-28
We start this
week by reading about the first Passover.
(By the way, Jesus and His disciples were in Jerusalem celebrating the
Passover which was an annual custom for Jews.)
The first Passover occurred in Egypt as Moses was working to get Pharaoh
to let the Israelites go. The last
plague that God brought through Moses was that the first-born of each household
would die. However, God gave
instructions to the Israelites through Moses as to what they should do to
prevent the death of the first-born. It
involved sacrificing a flawless lamb (without defect, without blemish). Note that Jesus was called the “Lamb of
God.” If some blood of the lamb was
spread on the doorposts and beam above
the door, this would cause the angel of death to “pass over” that house and the
first-born will not die. Note that Jesus
shed His blood and that blood ended up on the cross. There was no magical power in the blood of
the lamb. It was really the faith of
those inside the house that the blood around the door would prevent their
death. Note that faith in the blood of
Jesus is what causes “death to pass over us” and allows us to have life
eternal.
Day 2: Matthew 27; Mark15
Jesus was put on trial and found
guilty. However, He did not talk back to
His accusers. (See Isaiah 53:7.) Pilate had Jesus whipped. (See Isaiah 53:5.) They mocked Him and spit on Jesus. (See Isaiah 50:6.) They lead Jesus away to be crucified. As they are crucifying Him, they cast lots
for his clothing. (See Psalm
22:18.) At noon, the sky becomes very
dark and Jesus cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (See Psalm 22:1.) As Jesus died at 3:00 pm, the curtain in the
temple that separated the people from where God lived (symbolized by the ark of
the covenant) tore in two, from top to bottom symbolizing that the separation
of the people from God was no more. (See
Exodus 26:31-33.)
Day 3: Luke 23; John 18-19
The passage from Luke 23 is
similar to the passages from Matthew and Mark read yesterday.
The passage from John has a couple
of extra pieces of information. First,
it was Jewish law that if someone is crucified, their body cannot hang on the
“tree” overnight. (See Deuteronomy
21:22-23.) So they needed to make sure
that all 3 people (the two criminals and Jesus) were dead and could be taken
down and buried before night. Since death
by crucifixion really occurs by suffocation, by breaking the legs of the
victims, they would not be able to push themselves up to take a breath and
therefore, would die quicker. The legs
of the two criminals were broken. But
not the legs of Jesus. (Read Exodus
12:46 to see how the Passover Lamb (remember, Jesus is the symbolic Passover
Lamb) was to be prepared. The
answer: the bones were not to be
broken!) Instead, the side of Jesus was
pierced by a spear. Out came blood and
water, medically speaking a sign that Jesus had died.
Day 4: Matthew 28; Mark 16
According to Matthew 28, Jesus
tomb is found to be empty and He appears to the 11 disciples. (Judas Iscariot, the traitor, is no
longer...) The last words of Jesus
according to Matthew gives us the Great Commission: go make disciples, baptize them, teach them
to obey. Why do we do this? Because Jesus has all authority in heaven and
on earth. How do we do it? With the power of Jesus that is with us
always to the end of the age.
Day 5: Luke 24; John 20-21
In Luke 24, we learn of 2 of
Jesus' disciples heading back home after the wild and unexpected events of the
last few days. They are saddened and
dejected because they had placed their hope in Jesus as the Messiah (Savior)
but their hope turned into hopelessness as Jesus was crucified. A stranger comes up to them (who is Jesus but
they don't recognize Him – they were prevented from recognizing Him, at least
for a while). Jesus proceeds to tell the
disciples about all that the Hebrew Scriptures (the writings of Moses and the
Prophets) had to say about the Messiah, in particular how He would need to
suffer. The disciples had thought Jesus
was going to be a different kind of Savior – political and military. But the Savior was really coming to save
people from their sins and reconcile the relationship between people and God.
As Jesus explained those facts, the disciples' hearts were burning. As they recognized Jesus, they then
understood and rushed back to Jerusalem to tell the other disciples that they
had seen the risen Jesus.
John 21:15-17 is a recommissioning
of Peter – recommissioning him to serve Jesus by feeding Jesus' lambs and
taking care of His sheep. Some
commentaries say that Jesus asked Peter 3 times if Peter loved Jesus because
Peter denied that he knew Jesus 3 times.
Day 7: rest
