Gospel.com Blog

Matthew 27:32-61

Now as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. Him they compelled to bear His cross. And when they had come to a place called Golgotha, that is to say, Place of a Skull, they gave Him sour wine mingled with gall to drink. But when He had tasted it, He would not drink.

Then they crucified Him, and divided His garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet:

“ They divided My garments among them,
And for My clothing they cast lots.”

Sitting down, they kept watch over Him there. And they put up over His head the accusation written against Him:

THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

Then two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and another on the left. And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads and saying, “You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.”

Likewise the chief priests also, mocking with the scribes and elders, said, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”

Even the robbers who were crucified with Him reviled Him with the same thing.

Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

Some of those who stood there, when they heard that, said, “This Man is calling for Elijah!” Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink. The rest said, “Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him.”

And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.

Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.

So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

And many women who followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to Him, were there looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.

Now when evening had come, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be given to him. When Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his new tomb which he had hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb, and departed. And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, sitting opposite the tomb.

It’s difficult for words to encompass the sorrow of Good Friday or the hope of Easter—there’s something almost unspeakable about the emotions of the holiday. Perhaps it’s fitting, then, that churches often call upon artists during the holidays. Artists help us explore and understand the stories and emotions surrounding these holy events.

If you’re the kind of person that connects with drama, and you’re looking to spend some serious time preparing for Good Friday, you might check out a recent offering from The Bible Experience called the Scriptural Way of the Cross. It uses prayers and audio dramatizations of the Biblical account to walk through the story of Easter from the Garden of Gethsemane to the Resurrection. It’s a variation on the Stations of the Cross, and a great way to frame your reflections on the final stage of Jesus’ ministry on Earth.

• Read more about the Stations of the Cross
• Walk through the Scriptural Way of the Cross
• More about The Bible Experience

How is your church incorporating the arts in their services this weekend?

What if your home was decimated and no one was concerned with rebuilding it?

What if instead of your home, it was God’s home?

Haggai is an extremely short book about an extremely important task: rebuilding the Temple. After the Babylonian exile, God’s people were allowed to return to their homeland by the Persian king Cyrus. They immediately set to laying the Temple foundation and reconstructing their houses, but for one reason or another they neglected to finish the Temple.

Many years passed before God finally spoke to his people through the prophet Haggai.

From chapter 1 verses 4-6:

“Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?”

Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”

He continues in verses 9-11:

“You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the LORD Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labor of your hands.”

After that, God’s people hurried over the next five years to finish the Temple, and as a result God’s blessing returned to them.

We know very little about Haggai other than that he was willing to be used by God in a time when many weren’t. Take a few minutes and read this inspiring book of the Bible.

[The above image of Haggai is from a sculpture at the Sienna Chapel.]

Do you have any Bible passages memorized? If you were brought up in a church community like mine, Scripture memorization was a staple of the Sunday school experience. Every Sunday morning, on the car ride to church, I’d find myself hastily memorizing that week’s Bible (or catechism) passage, knowing that my Sunday school teacher would show no mercy if I mangled Romans 8:28 or stammered my way through Heidelberg Catechism question and answer #1.

Over at the Addenda and Errata blog, Dan Reid admits to living through a similarly demanding Scripture-memorization routine as a child. But as an adult, he’s developed a new perspective toward memorization. Memorizing Scripture needn’t be just an onerous Sunday school routine: it can be a wonderful way to internalize and reflect on passages of the Bible.

His memorization strategy is more ambitious than most Christians’ (he does some of his memorization in the original Greek!), but there’s no reason anyone couldn’t get a lot out of memorizing Bible verses in good old English. Here’s some encouragement from Dan for anyone considering embarking on Scripture memorization:

First, I learned that memorizing doesn’t come as easily at age 59 as it did at age 9 or 20. Though I’m sure there are many other folks my age who can memorize with much less effort than I! But it’s possible. Just don’t set your expectations too high. Don’t beat yourself up when it doesn’t seem to be “taking” fast enough. If you keep at it, the text will work its way into the cranium, laying down its patterns and crystallizing in words, sentences and paragraphs. Keep inching forward and keep reviewing. Nothing is lost and much is gained by taking more time. Think of it as meditation. [...]

And here is another benefit: walk the dog, go on a drive or a run, and lines and paragraphs of the Greek text come to mind unbidden. Not bad.

If you’re looking to dive into the teachings of the Bible in a new way this year, I can think of few better ways to do so. So grab a Bible, pick a passage or two (start with some short and easy ones), and see if you can’t commit some Scripture to memory!

Mission Network News reports that Faith Comes By Hearing recently released eight new New Testament audio translations. Faith Comes by Hearing is a global missions organization that offers “the Bible in a format that will connect with the world’s 50% illiterate population.” The organization is partnered with Wycliffe, the American Bible Society and World Vision among others and currently has 400 versions in 336 languages.

Here’s the story from Mission Network News:

The new recordings are in Dan of Cote d’Ivoire; Garhwali, India; Kimochi, Tanzania; Koma, Ghana; Ndau, Mozambique; Quechua, North Bolivia; Mooré, Burkina Faso; and the New American Bible in the United States.

Together, these recorded languages represent more than 222 million people on five continents.

Of these eight language groups represented, FCBH notes that the Koma language is the smallest with only 3,800 people. Experts report that there is absolute illiteracy among this group in Ghana, meaning not one Koma person has the ability to read.

About 70-percent of the world’s population is part of an oral culture and live in poverty. That means access to God’s Word can be out of their reach.

Listen to samples from their audio Bibles using this widget. It’s very cool to hear God’s Word in another language:

Faith Comes By Hearing.com

Back in high school I was challenged to spend at least one minute a day in prayer. The idea being that one minute is better than nothing. After doing this for a month or so I found that that minute had expanded to far more than 60 seconds and had become a valuable part of my day. All it took to change my life was trying out a simple challenge.

When’s the last time you challenged yourself spiritually? Nancy Leigh DeMoss explores the connection between loving God’s Word and loving God and how 30 days can change your life. You can listen to the radio broadcast on The Revive Our Hearts page or read the transcript. She offers some compelling evidence to why reading the Bible is important for Christians.

And if you want some help reading through the Bible this year, it’s not too late to take advantage of the Bible Gateway reading plans.

We just announced a major overhaul of our Bible reading plans over at The Bible Gateway, head over there to check them out.

There are few things more spiritually rewarding than reading through Scripture in its entirety. We’ve added new tools to help you read through the entire Bible in a year: our new Bible reading plans. Starting on January 1, 2009, you can start reading through the Bible, one short daily reading at a time. You can read your daily reading online here at the Bible Gateway, or receive the daily readings via RSS or iCal.

There are four different ways you can read through the Bible—choose the one that works best for you! These plans are graciously provided by BibleYear.com:

• Old/New Testament: each day features a reading from both the Old and the New Testaments, so you read through both Testaments together.
• Chronological: reads through the Bible in the order that its events occurred historically. For example, Job lived sometime after the beginning of creation (Genesis 1) but before Abraham was born (Genesis 12). As a result, the Book of Job is integrated into the Book of Genesis.
• Beginning: starts at the very beginning of the Bible and reads straight through to the end.
• Historical: reads through the books of the Bible in the order in which they were written historically, according to the estimated dates of their writing.

To get your daily reading, visit the daily reading page each day starting on New Year’s Day, where your Bible reading for the day will be displayed. You might want to bookmark that page for easy reference (right click on this link and choose “Add to favorites/bookmarks”). You can also receive your reading via RSS or iCal.

We hope you find the new reading plans useful—and we hope you’ll use them to make your way through the Bible in 2009, whether you’ve read through it many times before or have never done so!

The folks over at IntoThyWord quietly launched the Biblical Eschatology blog a few weeks ago. If you’re interested Biblical exegesis or eschatology, this might up right up your alley.

From their About page:

This is not a simple Bible study; it is a vast undertaking, of which I do not believe has ever been done. What we sought to do is give you a more thoroughly engaged and proper viewing into the art and science of eschatology, evaluating end time’s scenarios and biblical thinking into the book of Revelation. At the same time, layout all of the main views for you side by side!

And from their first post:

The main point of Biblical, Exegetical Eschatology is to tell us not to be discouraged, but remain faithful and vigilant. We are to live our lives as if Christ were coming tomorrow, or preparing and planning as if He were coming a thousand years from now. We are not to be preoccupied with the details and trivialities. That is why Jesus did not give them to us. Rather, our faith development and steadfastness are far more impacting and real for ourselves and others around us!

Love the Bible? Always on your iPhone or BlackBerry? Own another web-enabled device and hate it when people only refer to the iPhone and BlackBerry?

You might be interested in an announcement we made yesterday over at the Bible Gateway: a mobile version of the Bible. You can check it out at mobile.biblegateway.com; it’s still a work in progress, so please drop us a line if you run into any bugs or have a feature request. Here’s a bit more from the Bible Gateway blog:

The mobile version features the Bible Gateway search box (look up a passage, keyword, or topic), the Verse of the Day, and the latest Bible Gateway news. To access it, just bookmark mobile.biblegateway.com in your mobile device.

Our vision is to get God’s Word in front of as many people as we possibly can, wherever they are and whatever technology they’re using. With smartphone usage on the rise all around the world, a mobile version of Bible Gateway is a natural step toward that goal. Give it a try—and if you have ideas for how we can improve it, let us know!

Mission Network News reported this week on the situation in Orissa. Many organizations are having to think of creative ways to help out in the midst of the conflict.

The violence in Orissa has been affecting the distribution of Bibles in India, according to the World Bible Translation Center. The increasing distribution difficulties have forced WBTC to rethink their strategy and begin work underground.

“There has never been a time like this in Orissa, and even in other parts of India,” says “Samson” of WBTC. The “time” Samson speaks of is one of persecution and upheaval. Christians have been under attack by Hindu extremists since August, many forced to stand by as their houses and possessions burn, including their Bibles. Even a WBTC worker was martyred last month at the hands of these extremists.

Clearly, the need for Bibles is great in Orissa. WBTC plans to distribute 66,000 Bibles to the 30 districts of Orissa in due time. “That is the least that we can do right now,” says Samson.

However, this will have to be done a little more quietly it was previously. Outside distributers are being chased away now, so the only people that be given this responsibility are those native to the area. These evangelists are doing what they can, but they have been beaten, tortured and even killed for their work.

The request for Bibles has been overwhelming. In one district of Orissa, 10,000 Bibles were requested.

Read more at their site.