Easter
Showing posts with label Easter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Easter. Show all posts

Recommended Resource: Seasons


I love to recommend great sources for our church family to use.  In a world where we can literally research anything in seconds, knowing how to decipher between good and harmful sources is important. That’s why I like to point you towards books, articles, music, and other resources that I find valuable and centered on truth.

Today, I want to share a resource from the Village Church called Seasons. It is a document that explains the Church Calendar. We are most familiar with two seasons of the Church Calendar, Christmas and Easter, but it is much more than that.  The Village describes the church calendar in way that it “seeks to redeem our time and space through the seasons of Advent, Epiphany, Lent, Easter and Pentecost. Through readings, prayers, songs, fasts and other practices, these seasons reorient our hearts and minds toward the Christian story.” This resource thoughtfully explains each of these seasons and includes excellent devotional content such as Scripture readings and songs that you can engage with personally and with your family.

My hope is that while we may be new to the idea of the church calendar, it can be a way in which we remember and are pointed to the one true story of the Bible.

You can access the Seasons booklet here:  https://www.tvcresources.net/resource-library/guides/seasons-book

© 2017 The Village Church All rights reserved.

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Evidence Is Available

Easter Sunday Brian talked about how evidence is available for all those who seek after Christ. He used the story of Thomas who questioned the news of Jesus being alive after His crucifixion. Take a look back at "Evidence Is Available", Brian Loveless' sermon on April 1, 2018 at Calvary Baptist Church, Grand Prairie, Texas.
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Four Things to Teach Your Children This Easter

I hope this is a helpful resource for your family as we approach Easter. There are so many opportunities around this time of year to teach our children about Christ and specifically about the Gospel and the resurrection. 

In Christ,
Brandon H.

Four Things to Teach Your Children This Easter

April 1, 2014 | Christina Fox

Spring is upon us. Flowers are beginning to bud, leaves are reappearing on trees, and birds are building their nests. Signs and decorations herald the arrival of our favorite season when we walk into local stores. Bags of plastic eggs and bunny-shaped confections line the shelves.

While we Christians enjoy all the signs of spring, this season is special for us in another way. In a couple weeks, we’ll celebrate the most important holiday weekend of the year: our Lord’s death and resurrection. Beyond jellybeans and warm sunshine, we remember and rejoice in the new life that is ours because of Christ’s sacrifice for our sins and triumph over the grave.

And we want our children to know this joy, too. We want our children to know that there is more to this time of year than chocolate bunnies and marshmallow peeps — so much more.

Will you join me in trying to turn the blooming opportunities of this season into a way to teach our children more about Jesus? Let’s think toward making the most of this spring to show our kids all that they have because of Christ. Here are four key things to teach our children this Easter.

1. The Story of Redemption

Our family has what we call a “Resurrection Tree.” For the month leading up to Easter, we read through the story of redemption. We begin with creation and the Fall. We then go through God’s covenant promises in the Old Testament, as well as prophecies about the Messiah such as in Isaiah 53. We study Jesus’s birth, baptism, and ministry. During the final week, Holy Week, each day’s passage focuses on Jesus’s last days. For each story and passage we read, we hang an ornament on our “Resurrection Tree” that we’ve made to symbolize the passage we read.

2. The Importance of the Resurrection

Jesus’s resurrection from the grave is at the heart of our faith. Paul wrote,

If the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. (1 Corinthians 15:16–19)
Go through this passage with your children and teach them how crucial the resurrection is to our salvation. Teach them that Christ rose from the grave because he was the perfect Son of God. The grave could not hold him. He conquered sin and death. Not only that, his resurrection assures our own future bodily resurrection.

3. Christ Is the Passover Lamb

It is no coincidence that Jesus suffered and died during the Passover. Teach your children the significance of this. Read the story of the original Passover. Show them how the Passover in Exodus points to Jesus, and how because of Jesus we are freed from God’s righteous judgment.

4. Cross Truths

Easter is also a great time to teach your children central themes such as substitutionary atonement, justification, imputation, and redemption. Discuss how Jesus perfectly obeyed his Father in all things. Teach your children that Jesus’s perfect life has been credited to us in union with him by faith. In Christ, God now looks at us and sees Christ’s perfect life. Talk about the sacrifices made in the Old Testament and why they were not sufficient to atone for our sins. Discuss why Jesus was a perfect sacrifice for us at the cross and that it was sufficient for all time. Talk about what it means to redeem or buy back something. How does Jesus redeem us?

Allegories can be a helpful aid in teaching these wonderful truths, including R.C. Sproul’s The Princes Poison Cup and The Priest With the Dirty Clothes, and of course, C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. As we teach our children about the cross, let us also remember those wonderful words from Aslan,
that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.

Reprinted from Desiring God. Copyright 2016 Christina Fox Guest Contributor, desiringGod.org. Find the original article here at http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/four-things-to-teach-your-children-this-easter
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Passion Week

With Easter right around the corner, I want to highlight an article that summarizes the events of what we call The Passion Week. This week includes the final six days of Jesus' life before His resurrection, His resurrection, and the day after the resurrection. Included in the article are summaries of each day as well as corresponding Scripture passages. Understanding the resurrection in the immediate context of Jesus' final days enhances the power and magnitude of this amazing event!

In Christ,
Brandon H.


From Sunday to Sunday: A Summary of the Passion Week

David Huffstutler | March 7th, 2016 | (c) Copyright Religious Affections Ministries

The Passion Week refers to the final six days of Jesus’ life before His resurrection, His one full day in the tomb, and the day of resurrection. It is called the Passion Week because the word passion comes from the Greek word pasxō, which means “to suffer.”

Sunday: Day of Celebration

Matt 21:1–11, 14–17; Mark 11:1–11; Luke 19:29–44; John 12:12–19

Jesus began this day by going to Jerusalem and ended it by returning to the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus in Bethany. In between these times, the most notable event on this day was the triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

Monday: Day of Confrontation

Matt 21:18–19a, 12–13; Mark 11:12–18; Luke 19:45–48; John 12:20–50

Jesus went from Bethany to the temple in Jerusalem. At the day’s end, He either stayed on the Mount of Olives or returned all the way to Bethany. He cursed the fig tree, cleansed the time, and spoke of the Son of Man being lifted up in glory.

Tuesday: Day of Controversy

Matt 21:19b–25:46; Mark 11:19–13:37; Luke 20:1–Luke 21:36

Jesus again went to the temple in Jerusalem and assumedly returned to the Mount of Olives or Bethany at night. He repeatedly silenced the challenges by Israel’s leaders, rebuked them, told many parables, and taught on the end times on the Mount of Olives.

Wednesday: Day of Conspiracy

Matt 26:1–5, 14–16; Mark 14:1–2, 10–11; Luke 22:1–6

The chief priests and scribes plotted to kill Jesus. Later that day, Judas went to these leaders and promised to betray Jesus.

Thursday: Day of Consecration

Matt 26:17–35; Mark 14:12–31; Luke 22:7–38; John 13:1–17:26

Jesus and the twelve celebrated the Passover, the first Lord’s Supper. Jesus washed the disciples’ feet and gave His “farewell discourse.” He prayed for His disciples.

Friday: Day of Consummation

Matt 26:30–27:61; Mark 14:26–15:47; Luke 22:39–23:56; John 18:1–19:42

Jesus prayed in Gethsemane where He was arrested (approx. 12–3 A.M.). He was then on trial before the Jews and denied by Peter (approx. 3–6 A.M.). Just before 6 A.M., Jesus stood before the Sanhedrin. Judas committed suicide. Jesus was on trial before the Romans and was sentenced to crucifixion (approx. 6–9 A.M.). By this point, Jesus had been flogged twice. At 9:00 A.M., Jesus went to the cross and hung there until 3 P.M. He died, was taken down, and was buried.

Saturday: Day of Cessation

Matt 27:62–66

Jesus laid in the tomb for an entire day. Soldiers appointed by Jewish leaders guarded the tomb.

Sunday: Day of Conquest

Matt 28:1–15; Mark 16:1–7; Luke 24:2–35; John 20:1–17

Jesus arose! On this day, Jesus appeared four times.
About David Huffstutler

 David pastors First Baptist Church in Rockford, IL. David holds a Ph. D. in Applied Theology from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. His concentration in Christian Leadership focuses his contributions to pastoral and practical theology.
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