Northside Church of Richmond

  What, to the Christian, is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ? Is it just another miracle? Is it a legend? Is it too good to be true? Is it just another piece of the puzzle in the Bible? Is it some elaborate trick done by the disciples? Have you ever paused to consider what the Resurrection means? I find that in my faith, sometime I get too comfortable with Hod and His Word. Things that should be foundational and life changing become arbitrary and obscure. If you are reading this, let me encourage you today to never stop let The Resurrection become obscure or arbitrary when it comes to your faith. What is the Resurrection? The Resurrection means that God is faithful. The Resurrection means that all of God’s promises are “yes and amen” in Jesus Christ. If He died and was raised to life, that means God is faithful to do the same for those who are in Christ Jesus. The Resurrection means the beginning of the end of death’s reign over this world. It means that sin is no longer the primary p

  My wife and I finished watching “The Crown” earlier this year. For those who may not be familiar, “The Crown” is a show about the life of the Royal Family in the United Kingdom, and it lived up to the hype (in my opinion). There is one episode in particular that stuck with me. In Season 3, there is an episode that tells the story of Prince Philip essentially having somewhat of a midlife existential crisis around the same time that the crew of Apollo 11 flew to the moon and back. Seeking inspiration, Prince Philip (who loved to fly), wished  men with the hope that what they had seen would spark some kind of fire within him or rekindle some sense of purpose in this world. I will spare you the details of the conversation, but let’s just say they were kind of a let down. I imagine that what Prince Philip was seeking is something along the lines of what these Greeks were seeking when they said to Philip, the disciple, that they wished to see Jesus. Now, Jesus could have said literally any

 Have you ever watched a movie with an ending you didn’t expect? I remember seeing a movie with some friends in high school that left us so confused that we had to debrief immediately in the movie theater once credits rolled. That is what I imagine it felt like to be one of Jesus’ disciples on the day of His death. There they were, watching the crowd take the man who was supposed to change everything, and kill Him as if He were a criminal. I often wonder if there was anyone who understood that it was happening according to plan. The fact of the matter is that this what was supposed to happen. This was part of the greatest victory ever won in history. Up to this point, death has been the debt that all men pay. Up to this point, sin still held man captive. Because of Adam, human nature was defined by sin. Therefore, we needed someone else to come through and redefine it. The only option was to defeat sin and death itself. How exactly do you do that? Well, we learn from Jesus that the fir

 The Ojays once sang,  “All the time they want to take your place The back stabbers (back stabbers) (They smilin' in your face)” I am convinced that no one knew the pain of these words more than Jesus. The events of this passage comes on the heels of the Last Supper, as well as Jesus washing the disciples’ feet AND His high priestly prayer (based on John’s account). For all of the time and love Jesus gave to His disciples, it would culminate in desertion and betrayal on their part. Even worse still, Jesus knew it would happen, and He told them it would happen. We all would probably agree that the main antagonist in this passage is Judas. However, that is fairly obvious. Let us draw our attention to the other disciples . What we have here is essentially another episode in “The Disciples Just Don’t Get It” (see the previous devotional on Mark 14:3-9 for that reference). As I read this passage, I couldn’t help but ask, “when did Jesus ever teach anything that would make any of the d