Anticipating Jesus' Death - Evangelical Caucus/Devotional

“‘After two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man is to be delivered up for crucifixion’” (Matthew 26:2).

Jesus adhered perfectly to God’s timetable for His death, which was part of the Father’s larger plan of redemption.

The history of redemption most definitely centers on the cross of Jesus Christ. Hymn writer John Bowring expressed this fact well:

In the cross of Christ I glory, Tow’ring o’er the wrecks of time. All the light of sacred story Gathers round its head sublime.

The apostle Paul was so convinced of the central importance of Christ’s death on the cross that he told the Corinthians, “I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). Paul knew that without the cross of Christ there is no salvation and no true Christianity.

Jesus Himself knew the length of His earthly life was determined by God’s sovereign timetable and that the time of His death could not be altered or thwarted. Concerning control over His life, He declared, “I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again” (John 10:18). As the Son of God, Jesus was able to look forward to His death and even predict that it would be in Jerusalem and that He would rise on the third day (Matt. 16:21).

During Jesus’ ministry, people such as the Jewish leaders unknowingly threatened God’s timetable when they sought to kill Him. But all premature attempts to murder Christ failed because they did not fit into God’s sovereign plan for how, when, and why Jesus should die on the cross (John 1:29; Acts 2:23-24).

But Jesus’ reference to the Passover in Matthew 26:2 did fit into God’s plan; our Lord’s suffering and death was perfectly timed to coincide with that celebration. Passover was known by the Jews as the festival in which sacrificial lambs were slain, but now the death of the Lamb of God would forever replace Passover’s importance. We can take great comfort in all this, knowing “Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed” (1 Cor. 5:7) and that Jesus the Lamb was “foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of [us]” (1 Peter 1:19-20).

Thank the Lord that His sovereign plan for Christ’s sacrificial death could not be changed by man’s will.

Read John 10:1-18, and select several verses for meditation and memorization. What does the passage say about the nature of salvation?

And God's timetable was based on the Hebrew calendar He created which starts after the full moon!

Jesus did die after the "Last Supper" on a Wednesday afternoon and he rose 3 days later as he declared many times.

His day of being raised again was as his first day of life - his birth in the manger, both on the 1st day of Nisan...the "beginning of life, or the day of "first fruits."

There is nowhere of his death on "Friday or "good Friday in the Bible. We should honor God and his plan and NOT churches who make up their own stories...... imho

It always struck me when Paul wrote to the Corinthians:

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know Him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks search for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. (I Corinthians 1:18-25))

The unsaved hear that Christians believe Jesus died on the cross for our sins and it doesn't compute -- they think it's ridiculous. But the cross is the true POWER of God. Christ's resurrection is indisputable and we commemorate it at this time of year because, the cross without the resurrection WOULD be foolishness. As Scripture says, "If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins." (I Cor. 15:17). There is no Christianity without the cross AND the resurrection.

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