Good Friday!

For Good Friday, April 3, 2026:

Matthew 27:20 NLT: “The leading priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas to be released and for Jesus to be put to death.”

Many people had pilgrimaged to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover at the Temple. So Jesus’ trial before Pilate was witnessed by many. The custom was to release one prisoner on that special day, giving them a second chance. Barabbas was a horrible man, but the priests convinced the crowd to ask for him rather than Jesus.

Pilate responded, “Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?”

They shouted back, “Crucify him!”

This dialog went back a forth a number of times. Pilate literally washed his hands of the matter, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood.” Pilate’s wife had suffered a nightmare over what was about to happen. The guards took Jesus to be flogged, and eventually crucified. It’s a horrible death. The body grows weak, collapses and dies of asphyxiation, unable to support itself to take in one more breath.

Jesus was fully God and fully human. We sadly remember the human part dying on this day. Our spiritual mentor, our life coach, was gone. His body was quickly placed in a tomb donated by Joseph of Arimathea, and secured with a huge stone. No further work could be done as the Sabbath (Saturday) was drawing near. The women would finish preparing the body on Sunday.

The fully human part will remain in the grave, at least until Sunday. But what will the God-part be doing?

Pastor Norton Lawellin

The Father’s House

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Truth & Freedom Church

Death Is Not the End!

September 1, 2025, Monday Message:

Luke 18:31-33 NLT: “Taking the twelve disciples aside, Jesus said, ‘Listen, we’re going up to Jerusalem, where all the predictions of the prophets concerning the Son of Man will come true. He will be handed over to the Romans, and he will be mocked, treated shamefully, and spit upon. They will flog him with a whip and kill him, but on the third day he will rise again.’”

The “going up to Jerusalem” would be the Triumphal Entry, what we celebrate as Palm Sunday. Following that, things would quickly go downhill. The Pharisees had been plotting to kill Jesus for quite some time, and this time they would get their wish. Judas-the-traitor would betray our Savior, who would be arrested, mocked, beaten and spit upon. On the following Friday, he would be nailed to a cross. Crucifixion always ended in death. The Romans were diligent about their evil task.

On the cross, Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Jesus had lived an innocent life, but at that point, I believe the sins of the world were heaped upon him. Since he really died, Jesus visited the place of the dead, and there he left the sins of the world, separating sin from believers as far as the east is from the west, as far as the ocean is deep.

Three days later Jesus went missing from the tomb. Everyone he encountered could see him, talk to him and hear him speak. Jesus continued to teach, and I suspect the main message was that death is not the end! Jesus was a walking, talking example of resurrection! In the life after this life, the sheep are separated from the goats, and Jesus will prepare a place for his flock in the Eternal Kingdom

Jesus was fulfilling prophesy after prophesy, proving him to be beyond a shadow of a doubt the expected Messiah. God’s plan was that mankind’s sins could be forgiven through faith in the Son. Jesus’ obedience made it possible for us to see heaven from the inside. God’s desire is that none would perish, but that all would repent and return. Have you made arrangements to join Jesus in the hereafter?

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship