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Easter Special
THE CROSS AT
THE BUS STATION
Easter in Jerusalem
THE MYSTERIOUS
STRANGER
How did he know?
ENDTIME
INSIGHTS
The King’s return
cctti ivv ttee
P E R S O N A L LY S P E A K I N G
For a wide range of books and
audio and video productions to In the course of working on this Easter
feed your soul, contact one of our issue, I read arguments on both sides of
distributors below, or visit our the Resurrection-fact-or-fable debate. My
Web site at www.activated.org biggest surprise was that logic seems to
be on the side of those who believe the
Activated Ministries accounts in the four Gospels and the Acts
P.O. Box 462805 of the Apostles. I’ve believed for years, but as a matter of faith
Escondido, CA 92046–2805 rather than logic.
USA Skeptics say that it’s completely illogical to believe a story
info@activatedministries.org about someone who was brutally executed and sealed in a
(877) 862–3228 tomb for three days and three nights coming back to life and
Activated Europe appearing to His friends and followers. But is it?
Bramingham Pk. Business Ctr. Here’s one argument that I found especially compelling:
Enterprise Way Both believers and skeptics acknowledge that Jesus’ disciples
Luton, Beds. LU3 4BU were willing to stake their lives on their story about encounters
United Kingdom with the risen Savior. And remember, these were the same
activatedEurope@activated.org people who, by their own admission, had been discouraged,
+44 (0) 845 838 1384 doubting, and in hiding for fear of their lives just a few days
before seeing Him and beginning to spread the story far and
Activated Africa wide. Was it a fabrication? Would they have been willing to
P.O. Box 2150 suffer the consequences they did—beatings, imprisonment,
Westville 3630 and even death—for a fabrication? As one analyst put it, “Under
South Africa such pressures, liars confess their deceptions and betray their
activatedAfrica@activated.org cohorts.” Jesus’ disciples didn’t. Clearly they believed what they
083 55 68 213 preached. So did the apostle Paul, who had been among the
Activated India disciples’ most rabid persecutors until the resurrected Jesus
P.O. Box 5215 appeared to him.
G.P.O. For Paul and the other eyewitnesses it wasn’t a matter of
Bangalore – 560 001 reason or logic or even blind faith, but experience. They had all
India experienced the risen Savior. And so have I. No, Jesus hasn’t
activatedIndia@activated.org appeared to me in bodily form, but my experience with Him has
been every bit as real and every bit as wonderful. As the old
Activated Philippines song goes, “You ask me how I know He lives—He lives within
P.O. Box 1147 my heart!”
Antipolo City P.O.
1870 Antipolo City Keith Phillips
Philippines
ActivatedPI@activated.org
Cel: (0922) 8125326 FOR THE ACTIVATED FAMILY
W
hen we were young, my couldn’t take any more, but at the same
brother and I often engaged time He loved His children way too much
in silly fights. We bullied each to let them feel the brunt of His anger.
other, we called each other names, So He made the greatest sacrifice any
and sometimes we even pulled at each parent could make. He sent His own
other’s hair. When Mom saw us do this, beloved Son to pay the penalty for our
she would try just about anything to get sins. Jesus took on human form, came
us to stop. She would lovingly explain to earth, and lived among us. He didn’t
why we shouldn’t, or scold us, or some- come as an “enforcer of righteousness,”
times she would punish us. Each tactic but as a “man of sorrows,” to be humili-
worked for the time being, but before ated and rejected by most of the people
long my brother and I would be at it He had come to help. He was betrayed
again. One day Mom couldn’t take any by His own people. He was beaten, spat
more. We could see the anger in her upon, and mocked. And in the end He
eyes and the grief in her tears, and were
sure that we were about to be severely
disciplined. But instead she started
hitting herself. She slapped herself on
the face, and she pulled at her own hair.
She was so enraged that she needed
to vent her anger, but she loved us too
much to give us our due. So she bore
her own indignation.
This is what our heavenly Father did
for His wayward children two thousand
years ago. They had fallen into all sorts
of sins. They were doing things they
knew would displease Him, but they
still did them. He called out to them lov-
ingly, but they turned a deaf ear to Him.
He warned them through prophets, but
they laughed those warnings off. When
they were in trouble and cried out to
Him, He always came to their aid—only gave His own life in order to spare ours.
to be rejected again by them later, when “For God so loved the world that He gave
their need for His help wasn’t so appar- His only begotten Son, that whoever
ent. And they didn’t just do this once, believes in Him should not perish but
but again and again. (And of course have everlasting life” (John 3:16). ■
we’re all just as guilty.)
Then the time came when God’s (SUK ANYA K UMAR IS AN A CTIVATED
displeasure became so intense that He RE ADER IN INDIA .)
RANGER sacrificed for the sins of the world.4 The ceremonies, the
sacrifices—all of these things were merely foreshadowings
of events that are now unfolding before your eyes.”
The more this stranger shared with us, the more the
smoldering embers of our faith began to glow.
“Speaking of ceremonies, didn’t you just come from cel-
“Tell me what you know.” ebrating the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread?
“He was a prophet out of Nazareth, You know those ceremonies—you’ve done them every year
and He did some amazing miracles! He for your whole lives. You also know why Moses commanded
fed thousands with one boy’s meal. He them—as thanksgiving to God for delivering our fathers
healed people who had been blind or from slavery in Egypt. Through Moses, God instructed His
deaf or crippled from birth. He even people to kill an unblemished lamb and smear its blood on
raised the dead! And when He spoke, their doorposts. All those who believed and obeyed were
there was power in His words!” spared, ‘passed over,’ when God went through all of Egypt
Then I told the stranger what had and killed the firstborn of every household. Again, this was
happened in the last week—the mock a foreshadowing of the Messiah’s sacrifice, which delivers
trial, the people turning on Jesus after the believer from death. 5
He’d done so much for them, the ver- “And what about the sin offering and Day of Atonement?
dict, the beating, the humiliation, the What is God trying to teach us with these? Can the blood of
crucifixion, and finally the story of the an animal actually pay for our sins? Is justice served? And
women finding the empty tomb. why do these sacrifices need to be repeated every year? If
“It sounds like you have your doubts such sacrifices atone for our sins, then why do they need to
about that last part,” the man said. be offered again and again? Could it be that they were all
“Wouldn’t you?” I asked.
Instead of answering, the stranger 1 4
Genesis 3:14–15 Matthew 26:28; John 1:29; Ephesians 1:7;
asked, “Don’t you know the Scrip- 2
Genesis 4:1–4 1 John 1:7
tures—that these things were all part 3
Leviticus 17:11 5
Exodus 11:4–7; 12:1–13
5
1
Leviticus 16:15; 23:27; 2 Corinthians 5:21 Zechariah 9:9–10; Psalm 41:9; Zechariah 11:12–13;
2
Isaiah 53:6–9,12 Isaiah 50:6; Psalm 22:16–18; Zechariah 12:10; Psalm 34:20
6
3
Isaiah 53:5 Psalm 49:15
7
4
Psalm 22:1 Hosea 13:14
1
Matthew 12:40; Hosea 6:2 (CURTIS PETER VAN GORDER IS A FULL-TIME VOLUNTEER WITH THE FAMILY
2
Luke 24:32 INTERNATIONAL IN THE MIDDLE E AST.)
IT WAS E ASTER 2002 IN JERUSALEM. The Was this really the place where Jesus
cries of merchants rang out through was laid to rest and rose again to inspire
the narrow cobblestone streets of the His followers to spread light, love, truth,
old city, and the scents of a thousand and freedom throughout the world?
exotic spices hung in the air. Colorful Later we visited the Garden Tomb, a
Palestinian embroidery festooned stalls more recent archeological find that some
displaying glittering oriental jewelry. now believe to be the site where Jesus’
Rhythmic Arabic pop songs blasted body was entombed. Excavations have
from music shops as throngs of tourists, revealed a first-century garden in which
pilgrims, and locals mingled. Beneath there is a humble tomb, hewn out of a
the surface gaiety there was tension, rock face. In front of the
however. Small groups of Israeli sol- entrance to the tomb
diers nervously fingered automatic is a distinct rut where
weapons on every corner. a stone would have
Inside the high stone walls of the been rolled to close it.
Church of the Holy Sepulcher, myste- Other findings seem to
rious low chants echoed through the indicate that it may have
darkened halls. Black-robed priests been considered a holy
swung censers that dispensed incense place by early believ-
into the stale air. I walked silently with ers. There was a seren-
a few companions through winding ity along the garden’s
corridors that seemed to have no end, winding paths, shaded
but eventually descended into numbing The Garden Tomb
by olive and pine trees, that was hard to
cold where the feeble light of lamps on define. A young girl was seated near the
the walls was almost swallowed up by tomb, meditating. Her face also reflected
the darkness. A priest barked a stinging peace.
rebuke at a mortified tourist who had Near the garden is a cliff face with
unwittingly stepped across an invisible a strange formation that resembles a
line on the stone floor onto forbidden skull. Some have postulated that this is
holy ground. the “Place of the Skull” referred to in
SYMBOLS
we need look no further than the Easter
story itself to find some more meaning-
ful ones—and each has a story to tell.
EASTER
Colossians 1:13b,15
of Hebrews 1:3
2 Corinthians 4:4b
When He came to our world nearly Father, and He will provide Me with more
2,000 years ago, He and His message than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew
of love and salvation were rejected by 26:53).
the leaders of His own people. Yes, When He hung dying on the cross
they wanted a savior, a messiah, a where He was crucified, and the religious
great king, but not one born in a barn leaders taunted, “You saved others. If
and raised as a poor carpenter, who You’re really the Son of God, save Your-
chose humble fishermen, tax collec- self” (Mark 15:29–32), He could have
tors, drunks, and prostitutes as His done that. But He chose to die for you
friends and followers. Few of the rich and me!
and powerful of His day were interested After He rose from the grave, He could
THIS TIME in the freedom of spirit He offered have shown Himself to the high priests,
to those who would receive the truth the governor, or Caesar himself. He could
HE’S NOT He spoke. They only wanted freedom have proved to them and the world that
from Rome and Roman taxes. Nor did He was indeed the Son of God, the Mes-
COMING they desire the eternal treasures and siah, and He could have forced them all
rewards He promised to all who would to worship Him. Instead He appeared only
AS A MEEK believe in and follow Him. They wanted to those who already believed in Him and
a messiah, a king who could make loved Him, in order to comfort them and
AND MILD them a wealthy and powerful material encourage their faith.
kingdom there and then. For 2,000 years He and His Kingdom
BABE IN A This man, Jesus Christ, the Son have remained unseen to this world,
of the Creator of the universe, said, manifested only in the hearts and lives of
MANGER, “All authority has been given to Me those who love and receive Him by faith.
in Heaven and on earth” (Matthew This is the mystery that many of His own
BUT AS THE 28:18). He could have taken over people in His day couldn’t understand,
the world and made Himself king in and that many today cannot seem to
ALMIGHT Y one day! He told the Roman governor grasp: He offers each of us a choice to
before whom He was tried, “You could receive or reject Him. This is still the Age
KING OF have no power over Me at all, unless it of Grace, of choice, when we must believe
was given to you by My Father” (John His Word and receive Him by faith.
KINGS. 19:11). And He told Peter, “Do you But the day is coming very soon when
think that I cannot now pray to My this present age will be over and all the
I n My heavenly
kingdom, in the realm of the
Spirit, all are happy and ful-
filled, because they better under-
stand My love. They do not question
My love for them, for they have experienced
the height and breadth and depth of it. They
have great peace and great joy. There is no feeling
that one is greater than another or that one is
more loved, because they have found contentment
in the knowledge that I love each of them for who mercy and
they are. They understand that each is precious to tenderness and
Me. They understand that I died for each one, that forgiveness and sym-
I have redeemed each one, and therefore each pathy. When you struggle,
one is very special to Me. when you are tempted or
And so it is with you. You are special to Me! weary or weak, I feel for you. When
My love for you is personal. Don’t ever think that you are victorious, I rejoice with you.
you’re just one in the crowd to Me. Don’t ever I love and care about you, and I am not
think that because there are so many others, I far away. I am right there beside you. Let Me
don’t have time for you or that My love will run out shower you with My love. Let Me surround you
before it reaches you. with the warmth of My love. Let Me clothe you
I know your innermost longings and your inner- with the security of My love. Let Me fill you to over-
most fears and insecurities. I know your faults, flowing with My love. Let Me show you how special
too, and I love you just the same. I am love and you are to Me.