Tagged with: easter
Tuesday (Mark 12:1-12)
| Tue Mar 27 '18
It was the Tuesday of Passover week. Thousands of worshippers continued to flock to the Temple to offer their sacrifices. But today there was an unusual sense of tension in the air. Just yesterday, Jesus had brought the Temple to...
Monday (Mark 11:15-18)
| Mon Mar 26 '18
The streets of Jerusalem were filled with celebration, as crowds arrived to celebrate the Passover. Thousands of people trekked up the steep hill towards the Temple. It was a sight to behold. This Temple was the pride of Israel. It...
Stand Alone Talks: Easter Sunday
| Sun Apr 16 '17
Easter Sunday is the central event of the Christian calendar, where we remember Jesus’ resurrection and his victory over death. In this talk Dee Wade reflects on this momentous day and its relevance for our lives today.
Stand Alone Talks: Easter Sunday
| Sun Apr 16 '17
Easter Sunday is the central event of the Christian calendar, where we remember Jesus’ resurrection and his victory over death. In this talk Joel Nazar reflects on this momentous day and its relevance for our lives today.
Stand Alone Talks: Easter Sunday
| Sun Apr 16 '17
Easter Sunday is the central event of the Christian calendar, where we remember Jesus’ resurrection and his victory over death. In this talk Adam Purcell reflects on this momentous day and its relevance for our lives today.
Saturday: Reunion
| Sat Apr 15 '17
‘It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your...
Friday: Triumph
| Fri Apr 14 '17
‘When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.’ (John 19:30) Having expressed his thirst and drunk sour wine, fulfilling Psalm 22 and 69, Jesus now utters his penultimate...
Thursday: Distress
| Thu Apr 13 '17
‘Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I thirst.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and...
Wednesday: Abandonment
| Wed Apr 12 '17
‘From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).’ (Matthew 27:45-46) One of the most striking...
Tuesday: Relationship
| Tue Apr 11 '17
‘Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is...
Monday: Salvation
| Mon Apr 10 '17
‘Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals – one on his right, the other on his...
Sunday: Forgiveness
| Sun Apr 9 '17
‘When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals – one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”’ (Luke...
Seven Words from the Cross
| Thu Apr 6 '17
I don’t respond well to pain. When I experience it, the sounds that come from my mouth tend to be a mixture of muffled grunts and involuntary exclamations. They are rarely dignified, eloquent or meaningful. They are certainly not worthy...
Saturday: God in the Grave
| Sat Mar 26 '16
‘He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence,...
Let’s not bother praying for Brussels.
| Fri Mar 25 '16
….so implied Andrew Seidel, a prominent atheist lawyer, whose online comments have sparked the expected outpouring of emotion from both supporters and detractors. ‘More religion is not the answer to this problem,’ he says. Perhaps his motives are to be commended....
Friday: Pierced for our Transgressions
| Fri Mar 25 '16
‘Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us...
Thursday: The Sheep and the Shepherd
| Thu Mar 24 '16
‘He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and...
Wednesday: Showdown in the Temple
| Wed Mar 23 '16
‘Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices; together they shout for joy. When the Lord returns to Zion, they will see it with their own eyes. Burst into songs of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem, for the Lord has...
Tuesday: Beautiful Feet
| Tue Mar 22 '16
‘How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”‘ (Isaiah 52:7) If you were asked to suggest one...
Monday: Humble Beginnings
| Mon Mar 21 '16
‘Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to...
Guest Speakers: Palm Sunday
| Sun Mar 20 '16
As we celebrate Palm Sunday, Andy Crouch looks at four snapshots from Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. Through the stories of the king, the image, the pennies and the jar, we learn lessons about worship, power, and what it means to...
Holy Week
| Wed Mar 16 '16
If you’re anything like me, Easter can whizz by almost without you noticing it. Cadburys Creme Eggs are in the shops from Boxing Day, you’ve eaten too many by the end of January and entirely forgotten about Easter by February, until...
Theology Matters: The Gospels: Session 12: Why did Jesus Rise?
| Sun Nov 15 '15
Easter Sunday is the climax of the story of the gospels. But its meaning can be just as perplexing to us as it was to the original disciples! What does the resurrection mean, and how does it change the way...
Holy Week: The Resurrection
| Sun Apr 5 '15
On the third day, the crucified king overturned the verdict of his enemies, rising again from the grave. This Easter Sunday we will celebrate the resurrection, and consider its implications for our lives 2,000 years on.
Saturday: Crying out for Rescue
| Sat Apr 4 '15
Easter Saturday: a day of many questions and few answers. It sits in the silence, suspended between the despair of Good Friday and the hope of Easter Sunday. Psalm 88 is a cry of anguish, which sums up the pain...
Friday: Four Ironies of the Cross
| Fri Apr 3 '15
Good Friday. Jesus has stood trial before Roman and religious leaders, fearful of his popularity and suspicious of his motives. Although there had been no grounds for Pilate to punish Jesus, the combination of fabricated evidence and pressure from the...
Thursday: Washing the Disciples’ Feet
| Thu Apr 2 '15
The Last Supper is an iconic part of Easter week. Sat in the upper room, Jesus celebrates the Passover with his disciples and reminds them of his imminent betrayal and death. He does this through instituting the sacrament of communion...
Wednesday: David’s Riddle
| Wed Apr 1 '15
Jesus was a master teacher. People came to him with questions designed to entrap him, and he deftly turned the questions on their heads in a way that exposed the true motives on his interlocutors. In Mark 12, Jesus has...
Tuesday: Taking up your Cross
| Tue Mar 31 '15
If you sit down and read Mark’s Gospel through there’s a watershed moment that it’s difficult to miss. The first eight chapters of Mark’s Gospel focus on Jesus’ ministry in and around Galilee in northern Israel. They’re filled with healings...
Monday: The Devil and the Details
| Mon Mar 30 '15
Right at the start of his ministry; before he’d begun preaching about the Kingdom (Matthew 4:12-17), calling people to follow him (v18-22) or healing the sick (v23-24); before news about him had spread through the nearby towns (v25); before Jesus...
The Cross of Christ: Easter Sunday
| Sun Apr 20 '14
Two men were walking down a road, their dreams shattered and every shred of hope destroyed. Only a few days previously it had looked like Jesus might have been the answer to their deepest longings. But in their despair and doubt, they...
Saturday: In the Tomb of a Rich Man
| Sat Apr 19 '14
‘Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who...
Friday: The Substitute Son
| Fri Apr 18 '14
Jesus stood on trial before the Roman Prefect Pontius Pilate. Having examined the evidence, Pilate had found no reason to condemn Jesus. And yet the cries of the crowd were demanding. So Pilate invoked an annual custom in an attempt...
Thursday: Who Killed Jesus?
| Thu Apr 17 '14
Who was responsible for Jesus’ arrest, his trial, and eventually his death? It’s not an easy question to answer, and its one that the gospels approach in various different ways. In one sense, it seems that the Romans had a...
Wednesday: Moving Mountains
| Wed Apr 16 '14
The Old Testament was packed with promises of God’s return to Israel and people were full of expectation of what that day would be like. Some passages spoke of God defeating enemies and rescuing His people (Zech 14:1-6, 16). Others...
Tuesday: Lessons from a Fig Tree
| Tue Apr 15 '14
It was the time of the Passover. Thousands of Jews had travelled to Jerusalem to celebrate the time in Israel’s history when God set them free from captivity in Egypt (Exodus 12). In the midst of the crowds, there was...
The Cross of Christ: Acceptance - Leviticus 16
| Mon Apr 14 '14
What is shame? Why do we feel it? And how does it cripple our lives? In Genesis 3, we see Adam and Eve hiding from God and trying to cover their nakedness. In this talk, David looks at how shame...
Monday: An Unintended Prophecy
| Mon Apr 14 '14
Jesus had received word that his friend Lazarus was ill, and by the time he arrived to visit, Lazarus had died. In John 11 we read the story of what happened next. Jesus spoke with Mary and Martha and explained...
The Cross of Christ: Relationship - Romans 8
| Sun Apr 6 '14
How do you view God? A distant deity, disinterested in humanity? At the heart of the Christian message is not a list of rules, or a set of heavy-handed instructions, but the offer of relationship with our Creator. In this...
Time for Community
| Thu Mar 27 '14
I’ve recently been re-reading Mark’s gospel. It’s an expertly crafted story that builds in intensity. Throughout the story, Jesus demonstrates his authority over sickness, nature, and even death. Nothing can stand in his way. By the time we reach chapter...
The Cross of Christ: Life - John 3
| Sun Mar 16 '14
Jesus sat down with Nicodemus, a religious leader, and told him an ancient story about a plague of snakes and a bronze serpent. In this talk, Andy will unpack Jesus’ story and explain how the cross allows us to experience the full...
The Cross of Christ: Forgiveness - Isaiah 53-53
| Sun Mar 9 '14
How can the death of one man 2,000 years ago make a difference to the lives of twenty- first century Londoners? And why was it necessary in the first place? In the second talk of this series, David Stroud looks at...
The Cross of Christ: Wisdom - 1 Corinthians 1
| Sun Mar 2 '14
The cross; a gruesome method of torture and death; an ancient symbol of Roman oppression. How has this symbol of weakness, shame, defeat and foolishness become something that Christians celebrate and draw strength from? In this first talk of our new series, Liam...
The Eucatastrophe of Easter
| Wed Feb 26 '14
Please forgive me. I wrestled long and hard over this. I’m aware that J.R.R. Tolkien gets too much airtime at ChristChurch London, but in my defence, I’m not quoting Lord of the Rings… In his essay On Fairy Stories, Tolkien...
Thursday: A Tale of Two Fires
| Thu Mar 28 '13
On the evening Jesus was betrayed, he shared a meal with his disciples, and Peter declared his total allegiance to Jesus. Jesus replied ‘truly I tell you, before the rooster crows you will deny me three times’ (John 13:38). After...
Wednesday: Thieves in the Temple
| Wed Mar 27 '13
Right at the heart of Jerusalem stood the Temple, an enormous structure elevated on a mountain. It had taken 46 years to build, and its foundations covered nearly 1.5 million square feet. The temple was covered in gold, and the...
Tuesday: The Tenants and the Vineyard
| Tue Mar 26 '13
Stories are explosive. They have the potential to get under our defences and blow things apart. Jesus told a story just a few days before his execution; a highly-charged story that likely contributed to the calls for his arrest: ‘Jesus...
Monday: Preparing for Departure
| Mon Mar 25 '13
At various points throughout Jesus’ life, he spoke in hushed tones, and swore people to secrecy about his true identity. But in today’s passage, as Jesus’ ministry comes towards its climax, he takes just a few of his closest disciples...
Saturday: Waiting in the Silence
| Sat Apr 7 '12
Why do bad things happen and bad people get away with it? Where is God in times of darkness, silence and pain? The story of Easter Saturday explores some of these questions: ‘Do not fret because of those who are...
Friday: Adding Insult to Injury
| Fri Apr 6 '12
Betrayed, tried and wrongly condemned to death, Jesus is handed over to the soldiers to be brutally tortured and crucified. ‘The soldiers stripped Jesus and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set...
Thursday: The Garden of Tears
| Thu Apr 5 '12
In one of the most moving passages in all of Scripture, Jesus is pushed to the point of despair. The story of Gethsemane challenges us to be obedient to God, even in the toughest of times. ‘Then Jesus went with...
Wednesday: Three Meals to Change the World
| Wed Apr 4 '12
Are there areas of your life where you are in slavery, or lacking in hope? In today’s passage we see that Jesus promises freedom for captives and the promise of a new world. ‘Then came the day of Unleavened Bread...
Tuesday: What is Jesus Worth?
| Tue Apr 3 '12
If you had to put a price on Jesus’ value, what would it be? In today’s passage, Jesus, the most precious being ever to have existed, is humbled to the point of being sold for next to nothing. ‘Then one...
Monday: Return of the King
| Mon Apr 2 '12
Is Jesus King of your life? Are you fully submitted to him? The Easter story begins with a dramatic entry to Jerusalem, which proclaims Jesus as king and demands our allegiance: ‘As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and...
