As our Lord Jesus Christ hung on the cross there was three hours of darkness and an earthquake which shattered rocks and opened graves. Nature groaned as the Son of God suffered. The Saviour felt the absence of His Father’s comfort in the midst of His trials but He drank the cup of suffering to the end and with the satisfaction of God’s justice came a return of the sun and the rending of the temple veil that shielded the holy of holies. A new and living way of access to God was now opened for sinners.

23 October 2022

Our Lord Jesus Christ’s suffering did not end with His physical abuse at the hands of His enemies. Throughout these first three hours of His hanging on the cross the soldiers who crucified Him, the thieves with whom He was crucified, the passers-by, the religious Jews all shouted scorn at the pitiful figure and tempted Him to prove His claims and come down from the cross. But our Saviour would not be distracted from His great work and for the love of His people and for the joy that was set before Him He endured the cross, despising the shame.

16 October 2022

Our Lord Jesus Christ was brutally treated by Pilate’s soldiers before being crucified. He was physically abused and mocked and paraded to the amusement of His enemies. A crown of thorns was placed on His head and a reed sceptre in His hand. His foes knelt before Him in mock worship. As Christ’s enemies satisfied their evil desires on the Son of God they unwittingly fulfilled all the Old Testament prophecies concerning Christ’s death, and verified the truth of Holy Scripture.

09 October 2022

Our Lord Jesus Christ was delivered by Pilate to be crucified but Barabbas went free. In today’s passage we see the worthiness and suitability of Christ to save and learn about our own guilt as robbers, rebels and murderers before God. Barabbas is a type of all God’s elect in their natural state.

02 October 2022

Our Lord Jesus Christ was bound by His enemies and delivered to Pilate. Here we learn about the Lord’s suretyship, His kingly office and the meaning of His silence before His accusers.

25 September 2022

Peter’s denial of the Lord Jesus Christ was a grave matter and brought about the fall of this dear saint. How prone we all are to sin and how easily we become ensnared by fear and lies. Yet, Peter was a child of grace, an heir of salvation and the Lord Jesus, despite the offence caused looked lovingly and mercifully upon His needy friend. 

18 September 2022

Our Lord Jesus Christ was accused of all manner of crimes and condemned to death as guilty. His foolish judges did not know what they were talking about. But God the righteous judge imputed the sin of His chosen, elect people to their Surety. He laid their sin on His Son. He made Christ, who knew no sin to be sin for us, and righty, truly, legally and justly declared Him guilty of death. 

4 September 2022

Our Lord Jesus Christ met those who came to arrest Him in Gethsemane with boldness and courage yet He was also meek and compliant to the will of His Father that He might fulfil all that was written in the scriptures and satisfy His obligations in the covenant of grace. 

4 September 2022

The suffering for sin of our Lord Jesus Christ commenced in the Garden of Gethsemane where His soul-suffering is described as Him being ‘in an agony’, ‘exceeding sorrowful unto death’. Here our Saviour felt the judgment of God and the temptation of the devil. Here He lay alone without human support and carried the weight of His people’s sin. 

28 August 2022

Our Lord Jesus Christ left Jerusalem for the Mt of Olives and Gethsemane, crossing over the Kidron brook. Despite all that lay before Him His thoughts were upon the wellbeing of His people and He tells Peter and the disciples that though they all will be offended because of Him this night He has prayed for them that their faith fail not. Blessed Jesus! 

21 August 2022

Our Lord Jesus Christ instituted the Lord’s Supper on this evening before His death. When we share in the bread and wine of communion with faith we are showing forth His death and testifying of our hope and trust in the cleansing power of His blood. 

14 August 2022

Our Lord Jesus Christ is our passover. He told His disciples that one of them would betray Him to death, generating amongst them great sorrow, self-doubt and self-examination. Our Saviour also preached to them about divine sovereignty and human responsibility for sin. 

07 August 2022

Our Lord Jesus Christ was the anointed one of God, set apart to redeem, reconcile and save all God’s elect. Here at Bethany a dear lady anticipates the Lord’s death for His people by anointing His head with very precious spikenard. The act pleased the Saviour despite the murmuring of some disciples. He declared that her act would be remembered wherever the Gospel of Jesus Christ is preached through the whole world. 

31 July 2022

Our Blessed Saviour spent much of His final week busily teaching, preaching and ministering to His people and disciples. Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday had been days full of activity. On Thursday the Lord would eat the Passover and begin His soul-suffering in Gethsemane. But Wednesday is remarkably silent. None of the Gospel writers speak about the Saviour’s activities on this day. It is Silent Wednesday.

24 July 2022

The Saviour warned His disciples to take heed, watch and pray and these admonitions apply not only to the times of the disciples’ lives but continue as a proper response from believers to the challenges of every age. The Lord has left His church with a task and a witness to every generation – to every man his work – to take heed, watch and pray, lest coming suddenly He find us sleeping.

17 July 2022

When the Lord Jesus explained to His disciples about the coming destruction of Jerusalem and the temple He expressly gave warning and advice and comfort to His chosen people, His elect. For their sakes the days of terror would be lessened, they would not be seduced by the false prophets of freewill, works-religion and they would all be gathered in by the coming of Christ in power in the gospel.

10 July 2022

The Lord Jesus Christ provided His disciples with ‘signs of the times’ for the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. He also warned them to be alert to false and deceptive Christs, to take heed to recognise and avoid false doctrine, and also of the need for the Lord’s preserving care for His church. These are lessons for all His people in every age.

03 July 2022

The Lord Jesus Christ pointed out to His disciples a certain poor widow whose faith brought her to give a gift to the Lord in gratitude and praise for her Saviour. He taught them, and us, that our gifts of worship and service must be offered in faith and all we have body and soul is only what He has first given to us.

26 June 2022

The Lord Jesus Christ asked, “What think ye of Christ? whose son is he?” It is an essential question. Our Lord Jesus is the Messiah of God. He is the God Man mediator according to the scriptures. If we are to know Him and love Him and serve Him it can only be as we learn of Him in scripture by divine revelation. May we so learn Christ.

19 June 2022

The Lord Jesus Christ taught His disciples and His church that true worship is spiritual worship, built on a knowledge of gospel truth and inspired by personal faith in Jesus Christ. May none of us be content merely to be ‘near the kingdom of God’. May we rather be like those who listened to the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, and who ‘seek … first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness’, ‘Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe’ (Matthew 6:33; Romans 3:22).

12 June 2022