Showing posts with label Holy Saturday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holy Saturday. Show all posts

Saturday, April 23, 2011

The Powers Have Been Broken

For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:8)

Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. (Hebrews 2:14-15)

Therefore He says:
“When He ascended on high,
He led captivity captive,
And gave gifts to men.”
Now this, “He ascended” — what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things. (Ephesians 4:8-10)

And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. (Colossians 2:13-15)
Today is Holy Saturday, the day between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. It is also called the Great Sabbath, in recognition of the day that the body of Jesus Messiah rested in the grave. But there was more going on than that. Though the body of Jesus lay in the tomb, His spirit descended into the place of the dead, where He asserted the victory of the cross. This is known, particularly in the eastern Church, as the “harrowing of hell.”

The works of the devil have been destroyed. The power of death itself has been broken. That which held the souls of men captive has now itself been brought into captivity. Those who were formerly held captive, who died in faith before the Son of God became flesh and dwelt among us, have been delivered from Hades (the place of the dead) into the splendor of heaven.

Jesus has disarmed the principalities and powers — broken their power! — and paraded them around in public spectacle as defeated foes. The victory has been announced and the end of the age has already begun. “The darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining” (1 John 2:8).


(See also The Triumphal Procession)

Saturday, April 3, 2010

The Second Day

For You will not leave my soul in Sheol,
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
(Psalm 16:10)
The day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday is traditionally called Holy Saturday. It is the Second day, stretched between the Cross and the Resurrection. It is a time of waiting. In the silence and stillness of this moment, it may seem like nothing is happening and that we have been abandoned, but it is in this in-between time that faith reaches its full measure.

David had prophesied this moment long before, in a passage deep with messianic hope. He speaks to God with calm assurance and in a voice bigger than his own:
I have set the LORD always before me;
Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices;
My flesh also will rest in hope.
For You will not leave my soul in Sheol,
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
(Psalm 16:8-11)
It was a difficult time for David and he was in great need of God’s assistance, but the psalm begins, not with fear, but with a note of confidence. “Preserve me, O God, for in You I put my trust.” There is no sense of being forgotten or abandoned. There is only the recumbency of faith and the expectation of hope. God will reveal the path of life, fullness of joy and glory at His right hand.

On the cross, Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” It is the beginning of Psalm 22, which depicts an intense humiliation — the rejection of Messiah. Halfway through, though, there is a turning point where He declares, “You have answered Me” (v. 21), and the psalm finishes with grateful praise. In the Jewish manner of recalling an entire passage by reciting the opening lines, Jesus had the entire psalm in mind. Though, at that moment, He experienced most deeply the sense of being forgotten by God, He also knew that God would answer Him and that He would praise God “in the midst of the assembly” (v. 22). He would not be abandoned; God would deliver Him. Before He breathed His last breath on the cross, He said, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.”

Now the Second day had come and the body of Jesus was enshrouded and buried in the tomb. The disciples were still reeling from the events of the day before. How forsaken, how abandoned by God — and even by Jesus — they must have felt. He had promised them the kingdom of heaven; now the King was dead. Though Jesus told them ahead of time, on more than one occasion, of how He would be delivered up to death, He also spoke of the resurrection that would follow. Now they were in the in-between time and, traumatized by the cross, they could not see the promise of the Third day. But God had not abandoned them, just as He had not abandoned Jesus. It was a time of waiting while the victory of the cross brought forth the victory of the resurrection (which revealed the victory of the cross).

It can be very easy to feel abandoned by God on the Second day, when life gets difficult and heaven is silent. When we cannot see what is happening “behind the scenes,” it so often seems like nothing is happening at all. But as Paul said, “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). The power of the resurrection is at work and there is always a Third day.

Because God did not abandon Jesus, He will not abandon you. Even in the silence and stillness of the Second day, we have the promise of the Third. What is needed for the in-between time is the patience of faith.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

The Sound of Marching

So they went up to Baal Perazim, and David defeated them there. Then David said, “God has broken through my enemies by my hand like a breakthrough of water.” Therefore they called the name of that place Baal Perazim. (1 Chronicles 14:11)
David had just been anointed king, and the Philistines did not like it, so they came looking for him. David heard of this and went out against them. The Philistines raided the valley of Rephaim. David asked the Lord whether he should go up after them. “Will You deliver them into my hand?” The Lord said, “Go up, for I will deliver them into your hand.” So David led them up to the place which would be called Baal Perazim, which means “Lord of Breakthroughs.” It was there that God broke through David’s enemies “like a breakthrough of water.”

This was not like a few drips and drops. It was not a smattering of sprays and spurts. It was not a leak. It was a flood, a dam break! It devastated the Philistines. They retreated, leaving their idols behind, which David then burned. However, the Philistines made one more attempt on the valley. Again, David asked the Lord what to do. God said,
You shall not go up after them; circle around them, and come upon them in front of the mulberry trees. And it shall be, when you hear a sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, then you shall go out to battle, for God has gone out before you to strike the camp of the Philistines. (1 Chronicles 14:14-15)
God was going to go before David and strike the Philistine army. The sign for this would be the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees. Then David would go out to battle and finish them off, which David did, driving them back all the way back to Philistia. “Then the fame of David went out into all lands, and the LORD brought the fear of him upon all nations” (v. 17). The Philistines were never a problem for David anymore after that.

Today, I am thinking of Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday in terms of this narrative, which chronicles the final victory of David over the Philistines. It came in two parts. There was the breaking forth of many waters and then the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees.

On Good Friday, there was the breakthrough of many waters as Jesus dealt the death blow to His enemies, and ours. For He came to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8) as well as him who had the power of death, the devil himself (Hebrews 2:14). On Resurrection Sunday, this victory became apparent as God raised Jesus from the dead. Sin, death and the devil no longer have any power over us. The Lord of Breakthroughs has prevailed.

The day between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday has traditionally been called Holy Saturday. It is a time of reflecting on the breakthrough that has been made for us, the great victory Jesus won for us on the Cross. But it is also a time of listening for the “sound of marching” as that victory manifests in resurrection life.

Saturday, May 6, 2006

The Triumphal Procession

Thanks be to God who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him. (2 Corinthians 2:14 NIV)
There is a parade going on right now, and has been for almost two thousand years. It is a triumphal procession, a victory march. The battle has been won and the Lord Jesus Christ has cleared the way before us. He has destroyed the works of the devil, just as He came to do:
For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:8)

Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. (Hebrews 2:14-15)
This mission has been accomplished. It may not seem like it to many Christians, but that is simply because so many have failed to appropriate it, to take their place in the triumphal procession. Paul said,
Yet in all these things were are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor power, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:37-39)
Paul didn’t leave out a single thing: there is absolutely nothing that can separate us from the love of God, which has been demonstrated toward us through the Lord Jesus Christ. In Him we are overcomers:
For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 John 5:4-5)

So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the devil and satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. (Revelation 12:9-11)
The battle has been won and satan has been cast to the ground, defeated. He has not authority over us. All he has are lies and accusations, and God does not listen to those, so neither should we.

Now, notice how the saints overcome. In 1 John, we see that it is by faith, believing in Jesus, the Son of God. In Revelation, John gives this overcoming faith even more definition:
  • They overcome by the blood of the Lamb. That is how the works of the devil have been destroyed, by the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
  • They overcome by the word of their testimony. They speak the truth concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. They give evidence, producing proof that He is who He said He was is and did what He said He would do.
  • They overcome because they do not love their lives to the death. That is, they love the Lord Jesus Christ more than anything else, even their own lives.
If you know the Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible calls you More Than Conqueror and Overcomer! You do not have to listen to the lies of the devil, the fears and accusations he whispers in your ear. Jesus has already taken your past and nailed it to the cross. He has carried your sins and sicknesses and nailed them in His own body to the tree. He has dealt the death blow to the bondages and strongholds of your life. He has destroyed every form of poverty and completely destroyed the works of the devil in your life. You no longer have to submit to them, but you can now overcome them by faith in Jesus Christ.

The great victory march has begun. Have you taken your place in the parade? By faith in Jesus Christ, open your mouth and declare:
I am More Than Conqueror through Him who loved me and gave Himself for Me. I am Overcomer. I now take my place in His triumphal procession and rejoice in His victory. The works of the devil no longer have any right to me, to afflict me, to steal from me, to destroy my life in any way. I no longer listen to his lies and accusations; I drown them all out with joyful shouts of victory and celebration, because Jesus has destroyed those works and won the victory for me. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Holy Saturday


On this Holy Saturday, we remember that Jesus, crucified on Good Friday, was dead for three days. We know His body lay in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea. But what of His spirit?

The Apostle’s Creed says, “I believe … He descended into hell.” Today we think of “hell” as the place of the damned, but the word “hell,” as used here, refers only to the place of the dead.

To the thief crucified next to Him, and who believed on Him, Jesus said, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). Then, before He died, He cried out with a loud voice, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit” (Luke 23:46).

By the former, He may have only been referring to the blessed place of the dead, known as Paradise, or Abraham’s Bosom. By the latter, He may have only meant that He committed His human spirit to the Father to do as the Father desired. There was a separation of His spirit and His body, but when He was made alive again the third day, spirit and body fully united.
Therefore He says: “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.” Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things. (Ephesians 4:8-10)

But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down from above) or, ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:6-9)
The important thing to know is that, wherever Jesus was on this day, He did not remain there.