- So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. Mark 16:19 – Recently I was reading though Hebrews 8 in a Bible study at church, and this is where scripture speaks of Jesus as our eternal, high priest. There we see repeated what was said in our Mark passage, that Jesus is seated in Heaven at the right hand of God. Why should the fact that Jesus is seated be something we are glad to read about? Because that means the work is done. Think back to the Old Testament writings about the temple of God, even look at some diagrams of it to help. What you’ll notice is there was no chairs within the temple (in case you’re wondering, the mercy “seat” was not a chair). Why was that? Because the work of the priests was never done. They were constantly offering sacrifices, or changing out bread, or all the other responsibilities of the temple work. All that work was to keep the rules God had made and to keep the nation and themselves in a place of spiritual cleanliness, and such work didn’t allow for chairs of relaxation. Yet Jesus, who conquered death once and for all, completely paid the cost of our sins, and was raised to life, He has completed the work. The work is done and the law if fulfilled and completed in Him. Jesus then did the thing we all do when our hard work is fully completely, He took a seat showing all things were taken care of. Let’s be grateful we don’t serve a God who is still franticly running around trying to make it possible for us to have life and forgiveness. No, that is all fully taken care of, and now He is seated able to watch over our lives and reign as King Jesus. What a mighty God we serve! I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 3107
- And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. Mark 16:6 – Easter is a time we love to focus on the beautiful fact that Jesus is no longer dead in the tomb anymore. He has risen from the dead! Yet we must remember why Jesus did all this. It was to give us the opportunity to no longer be dead in our sin anymore. If you have Christ in your life realize that you are no longer held to sin like someone who is dead is held to death. Just like Jesus broke the bonds of death, He broke your bonds to sins. So when our common enemy comes around trying to depress you with sin again, what was said of Jesus can be said of you to our enemy because of Jesus’ sacrifice. See, you look for(your name), but they aren’t here. They have risen from the death of sin into life with Christ! This is why we celebrate Easter! Because of Jesus you are free! Amen! I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 471
- But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it. After these things he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them. Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. Mark 16:11-14 – We always love to throw hate at Thomas for not believing, but clearly he wasn’t the only one to not believe when told by others of what they had seen. All the others fell into that category. Today we too are asked to believe the testimony of others. Maybe it’s the testimony of scripture and we must believe stories we never saw firsthand. Maybe its the testimony of people in our lives saying Jesus changed them and we must choose whether to believe that. Whatever the case may be, it’s others experiencing something that we didn’t see. While of course not everything is true, let’s open our hearts more to the idea that God can still do great things. Maybe, just maybe, God did do something mighty in their story, how devastating could it be to them if we refused to even think about believing them? Be wise, but be open to God still working in great ways. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 1625
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