Who or what has made the biggest impression on you in your life? Who or what has had the biggest influence on who you are and what you are like? I suspect for many of us the quick answer is that mom or dad made the biggest impression.
Christ is risen; He is risen indeed! And that means that the story goes on. Our Savior lives. He will never die again, and our life with Him will never end. So the story goes on. The story isn’t over. The story did not end on Good Friday or on Easter Sunday or even on the Sunday one week after Easter; that was only the beginning.
$2.16. That is what it will cost you for a ticket to enter the “Grotto of the Apocalypse.” The what? The “Grotto of the Apocalypse” is on the Greek island of Patmos. Patmos is where the apostle John had been exiled by the Roman government as punishment for preaching the good news of Jesus. Patmos is where John received the vision that is preserved for us as the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation.
The men said to them, “Why are you looking for the living among the dead? 6He is not here, but has been raised! Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee 7that the Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again?” 8Then they remembered his words.
We want to linger just a moment over the second last thing Jesus said on the cross. John is the only one of the Gospel writers who records these words. It makes sense. John was an eye witness that day. Watching, waiting. He saw with his own eyes and heard with his own ears those words of Jesus, “It is finished!” But just what was finished?
The year: 1948. The place: Saskatchewan, Canada. A very unique example of a last will and testament. A man named Cecil George Harris was pinned beneath his tractor after an accident, and he managed to get out his pocket knife and carve a simple message into the fender of the tractor. The message read: “In case I die in this mess I leave all to the wife. Cecil Geo. Harris.”
Holy Week begins today. And one of the things we will notice as we read through the Gospel accounts of this week is the recurring theme of “king” and “kingdom.” In fact, you might say Holy Week paints a portrait of Jesus as King. For example, Jesus is painted as the JUDGING King in Matthew 25.
Pastor Peter Schlicht from Eastside Lutheran in Madison is preaching for our Wednesday Lent services.
Saul was “the man.” He was born in Tarsus of Cilicia to a Gentile mother and a Jewish father. His father was even a member of the respected party of the Pharisees. His father was also from the small, but very proud, tribe of Benjamin. In obedience to the Law of Moses, little Saul was circumcised dutifully and meticulously on the eighth day of his life. Not only was young Saul born a “Jew,” but he was raised as a “Hebrew.” He was taught, and spoke, the Aramaic language fluently.
Pastor Jacob Scott is leading this Wednesday’s Lent Worship. He serves at Zion Ev. Lutheran – Leeds.
