Category: Daily Devotions

Devotions this week are based on Week 7 Temptation to Triumph: Triumph: Death Defeated! (WATCH HERE)

Matthew 28:5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.

Before an athletic contest, there can be pundits who give predictions of the outcome and players that boast of a future victory.  None of this is meaningless until the contest is over.  Only victory will validate the truth of the claim.

At the resurrection of Jesus, the angel adds an important phrase. “Just as He said.” It is easy to slip by this little phrase and focus on the big point, Jesus was alive!.  However, do not underestimate this reality: The resurrection is not just a miracle. It is a fulfilled promise.

The reality of the resurrection gives trustworthiness to all of Jesus’ claims and promises.  He predicted this outcome in John 2.

18 The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”

19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

20 They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

When Jesus spoke these words, they did not make sense. But after the resurrection, everything clicked. The disciples remembered. They believed.

This is how trust works. When someone keeps their word in something big, it changes how you hear everything else they say. If Jesus was right about His resurrection, then He can be trusted in every promise He makes.

Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life.” That is not just a statement about the future. It is a statement about who He is right now. The resurrection proves He was telling the truth.

It’s no wonder that the Apostle Paul wrote, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17). 

If Joseph’s tomb held the body of Christ, the Christian faith crumbles.  But since Jesus’ is alive, JUST as he said, ALL of Jesus’ and the Bible’s teaching about him are true and trust worthy. Jesus wasn’t just trash talking, he was promising. Jesus predicted His death and resurrection and then delivered on it.  Victory validates truth!

Today, if you struggle to believe what God says, come back to the empty tomb. It is the ultimate evidence that His word is trustworthy.

Reflect: What promise of God do you find hardest to believe right now? How does the resurrection strengthen your confidence in that promise?

Prayer: Lord, thank you that you keep your promises. When I struggle to trust, bring me back to the truth of the resurrection. Help me to believe not just with my mind but with my life that your word is reliable and true. Amen.

Devotions this week are based on Week 7 Temptation to Triumph: Triumph: Death Defeated! (WATCH HERE)

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Matthew 28:5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.

The angel’s words are simple and powerful. “He is not here; He has risen.” Death had fought its hardest, and it still lost.

The fact that Jesus defeated death is incredible.  However, the resurrection is not just about Jesus being alive again. It is about what His coming back to life means for you. Paul writes, (Romans 4:25) “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” Jesus fully dealt with your sin. Your standing with God has been secured.

Death is the great enemy we all face. It shows up not just at the end of life but throughout it. Brokenness, loss, regret, and fear all carry the weight of death. But 1 Corinthians declares that death has been “swallowed up in victory.”

Picture a fire that has burned everything in its path. It looks unstoppable. But then suddenly, it is extinguished. What once consumed everything is now powerless. That is what Jesus has done to death.

This changes how you live today. You are not trying to earn life. You have been given life. Romans says it is a gift. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[b] Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23) That means you can live with freedom instead of fear, with hope instead of despair.

Today, when you feel the weight of something that feels like death or are facing the reality of physical death, remind yourself that Jesus has already overcome it. You are living from His victory, not toward it.

Reflect: Where do you feel the weight of death or hopelessness in your life right now? How does knowing Jesus has defeated death change the way you face that situation?

Prayer: Jesus, thank you that you did not stay in the grave. Thank you that your victory over death is my victory too. Help me to live today with the confidence that death does not have the final word in my life. Fill me with your life and your hope. Amen.

Devotions this week are based on Week 7 Temptation to Triumph: Triumph: Death Defeated! (WATCH HERE)

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Matthew 27:57 As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. 58 Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. 59 Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60 and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. 61 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb.

Matthew 28:1-6 After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

2 There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. 4 The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.

 

The women came to the tomb carrying the weight of defeat. Jesus had died. Hope seemed gone. The story felt finished. Matthew tells us they came simply “to look at the tomb.”

That is what defeat does. It draws our eyes to what is over, what is broken, what cannot be changed.

We all have experienced that feeling. It might be a relationship that didn’t work, a decision we regret, or a situation that feels out of our control. Losing leaves us stuck staring at what we cannot fix wishing we could.

The cross was not symbolic. It was final. Jesus had died.  According to many before him, he would stay dead.

It’s what happens as a result of sin.  Romans reminds us that “the wages of sin is death.” That is the reality when we live apart from Christ. Death is not just physical. It is spiritual.  It shows up in guilt, separation form God, and hopelessness.

For the women at the tomb, they would expect nothing different.  Death was final.  Jesus was dead.

Suddenly everything shifts. The ground shakes. The stone moves. The angel appears and speaks. “He is not here; He has risen!”  Jesus’ resurrection interrupts the story. What looked final was not final. What felt like defeat was not defeat.

Sin and death were not going to have the final word.  LIFE would!

Think of a game where your team is down with seconds left. Everyone assumes it is over. Then something unexpected happens. A last-second shot goes in. The outcome changes instantly. What felt certain is suddenly overturned.

That is Easter. Only this is not a game. This is life and death. And Jesus wins!

What feels final is not final when Jesus is involved.

Reflect: Where in your life do you feel like the story is already over? What would it look like to invite Jesus into that place of defeat today?

Prayer: Lord, you win!  You carried my sin to the cross.  You died in my place.  YOU came out of the tomb alive.  You win!  Remind me today that victory wasn’t just for Easter Sunday, but for every day that follows, which includes today! Amen.

Devotions this week are based on Week 6 Temptation to Triumph: Tension: King or Criminal? (WATCH HERE)

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(You are invited!  Join us in person or online tonight for our Good Friday worship which expands on this theme, “Punishment that brought us peace!” at 7pm – www.crosspointgtx.com)

Matthew 27:45-46; 50-51 From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. 46 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?”).

50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.

51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. 

 

Good Friday does not look like peace. It looks like suffering, injustice, and loss. The King who entered Jerusalem is now hanging on a cross. The crowds that once praised Him have turned. The disciples are scattered. Darkness covers the land.

Yet this is the very moment where true peace is secured.

The prophet spoke of a King who would proclaim peace to the nations. 

Zechariah 9:10 He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.

Paul later explains that Jesus Himself is our peace, breaking down the dividing wall between us and God. Through the cross, hostility is put to death and reconciliation is made possible.

Ephesians 2:14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.

This is not the peace the people expected. They wanted peace through victory. Jesus brought peace through sacrifice. They wanted the removal of enemies. Jesus addressed the deeper enemy of sin.

Through His death, we are justified by faith and have peace with God. The torn curtain symbolized the barrier between us and God had been removed.  This is the foundation of all true peace. It is not dependent on circumstances. It is rooted in being reconciled to Christ.

When we have peace with God, everything changes. Trials may remain, but we are no longer alone. Fear may arise, but it does not define us. We stand in grace.

Good Friday invites us to look at the cross and see more than suffering. It invites us to see the cost of our peace. It invites us to trust that what looks like defeat is actually victory.

The King, Jesus, rode into Jerusalem and went to the cross for you. Not to meet your expectations, but to give you what you truly need…a Savior!

Reflect: Where am I seeking peace in my circumstances instead of in my relationship with God? How does the cross change my understanding of true peace?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You for the peace You secured through the cross. Help me to trust in that peace, even when life feels uncertain. Draw me closer to You and anchor my heart in Your grace. Amen.

Devotions this week are based on Week 6 Temptation to Triumph: Tension: King or Criminal? (WATCH HERE)

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John 13:1 It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

2 The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

7 Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

8 “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

9 “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

10 Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” 11 For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.

12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

 

As the week progressed, the same King who entered Jerusalem in humility took on the role of a servant. On the night He was betrayed, Jesus gathered with His disciples and did something unexpected. He washed their feet.

This act revealed the heart of His kingdom. The King does not demand to be served. He chooses to serve. He kneels before His followers, performing the task of a servant, showing them what true greatness looks like.

Jesus also gave a command. Love one another as I have loved you. This love is not theoretical. It is sacrificial, patient, and active. It reflects His own love, which he gave in the Supper he started and the sacrifice he made on the cross.

The disciples wanted a reigning King, but Jesus showed them a serving King. They wanted glory, but He demonstrated humility. They expected power, but He modeled surrender.

This tension still challenges us. Do we follow a King who serves, or do we reshape Him into one who simply serves us? Do we receive His love and then extend it, or do we keep it to ourselves?

Maundy Thursday invites us to slow down and consider the depth of His love. “Give and shed FOR YOU for the forgiveness of your sins.  It also calls us to respond. To receive His love is to be changed by it. To be changed by it is to reflect it.

As we receive his sacrificial love, serving others becomes an act of worship. Loving others becomes evidence of His work in us and for us.

Reflect: How has Jesus served me in ways I may take for granted? Who is God calling me to serve in humility and love this week?

Prayer: Jesus, thank You for loving me with a servant’s heart. Help me to receive Your love deeply and reflect it sincerely to others through humble service. Amen.