He went on a little farther

He went on a little farther

“One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. They told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.”

Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!” “My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed. Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”-John 20:24-29

There is one disciple, whom, although he would go on to give his life proclaiming the gospel, would unfortunately be remembered more for a momentary lapse of faith rather than his sacrificial missions work. We commonly hear him referred to as Doubting Thomas. 

Thomas was not in attendance with the other disciples the first time that Jesus appeared to them just after His resurrection. When they told Thomas of the encounter they had with Jesus, Thomas refused to believe. He declared, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound on in his side.”

Thomas had been a disciple of Jesus for 3 1/2 years. He witnessed and experienced Jesus feed the five thousand, walk on water, heal the sick, cast out demons, and raise the dead. He had sat under all of Jesus’ teaching and was given authority by Jesus to heal the sick and cast out demons on occasion for himself. It is evident that he was fully aware what happened to Jesus at the crucifixion and what Jesus suffered by his description of the event. Yet, his statement leads us to believe that even after weighing all of that, it still wasn’t enough to make him believe. It begs the question…How far does Jesus have to go to make you believe?

“He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion,

crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.”-Isaiah 53:3-5

At anytime along this painful journey to the cross Jesus could have stopped. He could have stopped at Gethsemane, but He chose to lay aside His will for God’s will (Matthew 26:36-39).  He could have stopped at the palace where they beat Him, robed Him in purple mocking Him, just before crushing a crown of thorns onto His brow. He could have stopped there instead of bearing the shame (Matthew 27:27-30). He could have stopped at the whipping post after securing our healing (John 19:2, 1 Peter 2:21-25). He could have stopped at the cross and came down like everyone kept insisting He do to prove He was the Son of God (Matthew 27:39-44). 

However, He would have never secured our forgiveness. He could have went directly into the presence of God, but instead He vanquished hell and came out with the keys of death, hell and the grave so that we would not have to live in fear (Revelation 1:18). 

Nevertheless, He went on a little farther and came out of the tomb three days later and secured for us eternal life with God! How much further do you need Him to go before you will believe?

Pastor Scott Burr

Dayspring Community Church

Your Savior is come!

“Rejoice, O people of Zion! Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem! Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey-riding on a donkey’s colt.”-Zechariah 9:9

Zechariah the prophet lived 500 years before Jesus. He was part of the group of exiles that returned from Babylon commissioned with rebuilding the Temple. 

He, along with the Prophet Haggai were used by God to stir the Jewish people to finish the construction on the Temple. What is interesting about him is that he is seen by scholars as being, “the most Messianic of all the Old Testament prophets, giving distinct, verifiable references, to the coming Messiah.”

So this passage is of keen interest to us this week as we consider what took place as Jesus was about to enter Jerusalem:

“When He had said this, He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. And it came to pass, when He drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mountain called Olivet, that He sent two of His disciples, saying, “Go into the village opposite you, where as you enter you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Loose it and bring it here. And if anyone asks you, ‘Why are you loosing it?’ thus you shall say to him, ‘Because the Lord has need of it.’ ” So those who were sent went their way and found it just as He had said to them. But as they were loosing the colt, the owners of it said to them, “Why are you loosing the colt?”

And they said, “The Lord has need of him.” Then they brought him to Jesus. And they threw their own clothes on the colt, and they set Jesus on him. And as He went, many spread their clothes on the road.”-Luke 19:28-36

As Jesus came to the Mount of Olives he sent his disciples into a nearby village. He told them what to look for, where to find it, and what to do with it. They brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments over it for him to ride. As he rode along, the crowds spread out their garments on the road ahead of him. Why? Why such reverence?

There is certainly nothing special about a man riding a donkey. Unless, of course, your hopes and dreams of a coming Messiah are bound up in the words of an old dead prophet. Although, Zechariah had lived some 500 years before this, he had prophesied that the Messiah would enter Jerusalem riding on a donkey’s colt. The Jewish people surrounding Jesus would have known this passage very well. They would have seen this and immediately known what was being fulfilled before their eyes. 

Reverence soon erupted into the praise the closer He inched towards Jerusalem. Jesus was no longer trying to keep His identity hidden. He was openly fulfilling Messianic prophecy. 

The crowds that followed Jesus began to cry out as He was entering the city: 

“Hosanna! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that comes  in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”-Mark 11:9-10

Hosanna means: save now. It was not just a shout of praise, but a plea for deliverance. The crowd that had followed Him for so long started to look at Him differently. Now, they were not just focusing on Jesus as a great prophet, rabbi or teacher. They were seeing Him as the Messiah! 

The passion week has a way of revealing Jesus to us in ways that we had not previously seen. These days leading up to the celebration of His resurrection have caused people, for hundreds of years, to look at Jesus differently than they ever have before. Even this week, 2,000 years later, for the first time many will see Him as more than a prophet or great teacher, but instead they will see Jesus as their Savior. 

Pastor Scott Burr

Dayspring Community Church 

Let broken table lie (Pt.2)

(Part 2 of 2)

“When they arrived back in Jerusalem, Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the people buying and selling animals for sacrifices. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves, and he stopped everyone from using the Temple as a marketplace. He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”-Mark 11:15-17

Upon returning to Jerusalem the next day, Jesus makes a straight line for the Temple. Jesus visit to the Temple was not out of religious obligation or custom. Instead, His visit was intentional. He came back to see something. 

It should be noted that this wasn’t the first time Jesus cleared the temple:

“Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” Then His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.” -John 2:13-17. 

The Jews demanded that Jesus give them a sign to confirm he had the authority to do what He had done. It is here that Jesus revealed His future death, burial and resurrection when he declared: “Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

Jesus was moved with passion over the corruption and worldliness that had occupied the Temple. The people, specifically the religious leaders had attempted to marry the world to the presence of God and Jesus responded. 

Jesus would move on from there and teach, perform miracles, heal the sick, walk on water, raise the dead, cast out demons. Three years later, He would enter that city once again at Passover and return to the place where he declared His death, burial, resurrection. He would return to the place where with great passion He rebuked worldliness and corruption and demonstrated His zeal for God’s house; only to find that they had obviously went back to their old ways of living. 

Makes me wonder, how long after Jesus left the building did they immediately go back to setting up the tables? How about you? How long after Jesus upended your life (tossed out the sin and corruption in you heart and mind); after you heard the message of His death, burial and resurrection did you start setting up tables again and get back to the business of your old life. 

Jesus’ stop at the fig tree was symbolic. Jesus should be returning to a people who had an encounter with Him and there ought to be fruit in their lives to show it. However, they were leafy and looked healthy but upon inspection they were barren. Jesus came back three years later to see that nothing had changed. 

Are you any different than you were three years ago? Have you grown any? Have you become any more passionate? Any more committed? Have got comfortable? Have you started looking at those overturned tables and thought, it won’t hurt to set one of them back up. What is Jesus going to find in your life that he addressed three years ago that you still refuse to “clear out”. What tables have you set back up? 

Can I tell you let those broken tables lie! You are God’s temple. Before we can truly embrace what Jesus did at the cross, we must clear the temple. 

Pastor Scott Burr

Dayspring Community Church 

Let broken tables lie (Pt.1)

(Part 1 of 2)

“When they arrived back in Jerusalem, Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the people buying and selling animals for sacrifices. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves, and he stopped everyone from using the Temple as a marketplace. He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”-Mark 11:15-17

How do you prepare yourself spiritually for Easter? How does one properly prepare one’s self for the death, burial and resurrection of our Savior?

Many Christians around the world participate in and observe Lent. Lent is a six week period that leads us into Easter. It is similar to the celebration of Advent that builds up to Christmas. However, while Advent is a time of expectation and anticipation, Lent is a more solemn observance looking ahead to Christ’s suffering and death. It is often celebrated with a time of fasting or giving up something as a means of staying our minds on Christ and preparing our hearts to remember His life, death, and resurrection. 

It got me to thinking about what Jesus was doing in preparation for Easter. Jesus, at that time, was the only one who knew that His death was imminent. How did he spend that final week? Where did He go? What did He say? 

One of the first things that I was drawn to was this story of Jesus cleansing the Temple. 

Jesus arrived in Jerusalem, just prior to the Passover celebration on what would be His farewell tour. We read about it in Mark 11. It is called the Triumphal Entry. Here we read how Jesus comes into Jerusalem, riding on a donkey with crowds of people surrounding him, waving palm branches, praising God and shouting “Hosanna, blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord.”

His first stop on the tour, upon entering the city, was the Temple. 

 “So Jesus came to Jerusalem and went into the Temple. After looking around carefully at everything, he left because it was late in the afternoon. Then he returned to Bethany with the twelve disciples.”-Mark 11:11 

What was Jesus looking for? What was Jesus hoping to see? Jesus leaves the temple to return to Bethany for the night, but early the next morning, He beats a path once again for Jerusalem:

“Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry. And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. In response Jesus said to it, “Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.”-Mark 11:12-14

As Jesus was returning to Jerusalem the next day he passed a fig tree. From a distance it was “full of leaf” and appeared as though it ought to have something on it. But on closer inspection, Jesus discovered that it did not and He cursed the tree. This encounter with the barren fig tree makes what happens next, so much more powerful.

Pastor Scott Burr

Dayspring Community Church