He is risen
He is risen indeed!
Do not abandon yourselves to despair: We are the Easter people, and Hallelujah is our song. ~ Pope John Paul II.
Today we come in the knowledge that Christ Jesus is risen and yes we praise him Hallelujah is our song! Hallelujah – God be praised
Thursday; At the last supper Jesus and his disciples joined together in a meal, an observance that their people had partaken in for hundreds of years. Luke tells it like this! Chapter 22:8-20
“Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, ‘Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.’
‘Where do you want us to prepare for it?’ they asked.
He replied, ‘As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, and say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ He will show you a large room upstairs, all furnished. Make preparations there.’
They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover. When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And he said to them, ‘I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.’
After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, ‘Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.’
And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.’
In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “’This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.’”
There is an interesting point in Luke’s gospel that he discusses Jesus taking the cup of wine twice. The cup was traditionally taken at Passover four times. Between the first and the second cup, two Psalms were sung one of these Psalms is Psalm 113. These Psalms were part of a group of five songs sung at the Passover meal from Psalm 113 to 118. These are the Hallel Psalms, praise Psalms, Psalms that declare the greatness of God! You may know the song “Praise ye the Lord, Praise him you servants of the Lord”. This is where it comes from (Psalm 113:1-8)
Praise the Lord!
Yes, give praise, O servants of the Lord.
Praise the name of the Lord!
2 Blessed be the name of the Lord
now and forever.
3 Everywhere—from east to west—
praise the name of the Lord.
4 For the Lord is high above the nations;
his glory is higher than the heavens.
5 Who can be compared with the Lord our God,
who is enthroned on high?
6 He stoops to look down
on heaven and on earth.
7 He lifts the poor from the dust
and the needy from the garbage dump.
8 He sets them among princes,
even the princes of his own people!
Praise the Lord!
a) This song of praise is so much a picture of what Jesus has done for us. At this time of Easter we remember that in our own strength we cannot come to God, being lost in sin we could never have approached his throne, as people living lost in the darkness the light of God sought us out.
We have reason to praise him; four times in this Psalm the Psalmist declares that the Lord is to be praised! Why because his name is blessed.
b) Why is his name blessed, because from all over the world he has made himself known. Jesus said, “Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures” (John 10:9 NLT). We see God in creation, through his word, through his servants, and by The Holy Spirit the very person of God who enters into our lives and makes us fruitful and gifted so that his church may grow and his name might be further praised. The Holy Spirit dwells in us because Jesus made it possible; he is the Gate through which we can be saved.
c) Jesus has made it possible from east to west that the name of God could be praised. Prior to the cross, prior to Jesus’ resurrection, as gentiles our knowledge of God the Father was limited, now all over the Earth his name is praised. God the Father who is above all and created all! His glory is high above the heavens. None can to compare God.
d) Jesus came, the Psalmist talks of how God “stoops down to look on heaven and earth”, Paul wrote to the Ephesians 4:10 stating that Jesus, “He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens in order to fill the whole universe.” He goes onto to say how Jesus brought the church into being that “we all [might] reach unity in the faith and unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature attaining the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”
We celebrate this Easter that Jesus has made all this possible, a way possible that that we might be lifted from the dust… the dust of our misery, our sins and detachment; he freed us from the dust that blinded us and kept us trapped in the schemes of this world that kept us from right relationships with God and one another. We are no longer needy we know what it is to be free from the rubbish that controlled our lives.
Not only that, he lifted us, we are set among princes and princesses, we are now part of a royal priesthood. I find it amusing that many venture miles and miles to see the royal family. I appreciate how last Sunday we had Prince William the future King of England and the Commonwealth just down the road in town here. But we had a man, T talked at our meeting talk of how he was lifted from a life in the dust, a life of hunger, anger and abuse; lifted to a life set free from sin…to where he is serving God and his fellow man. He is now part of The Royal Priesthood. Jesus made that possible, without Jesus he would still be lost; it is Jesus who has elevated him and it is Jesus who saved us!
Jesus continues to do this for us all! Easter, IS the time when the price was paid, paid so that we might be princes and princesses in the eternal kingdom…we certainly have something to celebrate!
In Psalm 118 the psalm that would have been sung at the end of the last supper, another of the Hallel - Praise Psalms; the last song that Jesus and the disciples would have sung before Jesus betrayal and crucifixion are these words”
“Open for me the gates of righteousness; I will enter and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the LORD through which the righteous may enter. I will give you thanks for you answered me; you have become my salvation.
The stone the builders have rejected has become the capstone; the LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the LORD has made let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118: 19-24)
God in the person of Jesus has shone his light upon us; he is the gate through which we can enter into a right relationship with God, our fellow man and enter eternity as he went before us as the first born of those raised from the dead. “And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.” (Colossians 1:18)
Do we enter into eternal life; do we enter into the abundant life that is found through the gate that is our resurrected Saviour Jesus? Through the gate that is Jesus, our redeemer, our saviour, he is mighty, he is glorious, he is Holy, he is exalted, He is risen!
