Walking the Holy Land for Holy Week…
EXPERIENCING EASTER
This time last year I was prayerfully preparing for my very first trip to Israel. Little did I know how experiencing the location of Easter first-hand would forever affect my life in Christ!
To help again prepare my heart for worship this Holy Week, I was led by the Lord to recall, reflect, and refocus. Recall those surreal spaces where I walked with my two boys. Reflect on the reality of this sacred season. And refocus again for the Great Commission ahead.
I hope that this simple exercise in circling back helps you and your family experience Easter afresh too!
GOLGOTHA
When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (John 19:30)
Seeing with my own eyes the suspected location where Jesus died on the Cross for the sins of all those He came to save was surreal to say the least. But what was perhaps most encouraging about this location was the ministry and message I heard there.
After being repeatedly exposed to the overt Jewish/Islamic hostility of other locations expressed in military checkpoints protecting each from the other, it was so kind of the Lord to have the tourist sites of both Golgotha and the Garden Tomb (the LITERAL locations of the gospel) operated by an evangelical Christian ministry!
Not only was I deeply blessed by the ministry of John Sutcliffe, a UK evangelist who also happened to be our Golgotha and Garden Tomb tour guide, but I was also deeply thankful to hear brother John preach the gospel message too!
CLICK HERE to hear John Sutcliffe at Golgotha
CLICK HERE to hear me onsite at Golgotha
The Gospel: An Enigma of God’s Goodness (Sermon)
THE GARDEN TOMB
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)
After leaving Golgotha we made our way to the most likely location of the Garden Tomb where Jesus’ body was laid and resurrected. As you can hopefully appreciate, when my boys and I stepped into what was likely the very same grave where God raised Jesus from the dead, the power and reality of the resurrection moved our hearts to worship!
Walking away from the Garden Tomb, our mission team then sat together in a small outside chapel to share in the Lord’s Supper with a gospel devotional. What a wonderful time and place to again celebrate the Lord’s death until He comes!
CLICK HERE to hear John Sutcliffe at The Garden Tomb
CLICK HERE to hear me onsite at The Garden Tomb
TCC at Easter (TCC Radio Series)
THE MOUNT OF OLIVES
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)
As if walking La Via Dolorosa (the “Way of Suffering”) wasn’t emotional enough, it was while standing on the Mount of Olives where Christ commissioned all of His first followers that I was moved by the Holy Spirit with immense introspection about my own life and ministry.
Now, I’ve read and even taught Acts 1 many times, but it was while I was literally standing on that site with Jerusalem in view just over the hill that I had to ask myself, “If I’d been among those first few followers who’d heard His words of commissioning, how would I have responded?”
It was then when the Holy Spirit inspired in me some serious soul-searching about my urgency and obedience to His gospel…and I hope He’ll do the same for you after reading this testimony of my Easter experience!
CLICK HERE to hear me onsite at the Mount of Olives
Being Christ’s Witnesses (Sermon)
CLICK HERE to view the entire online photo album for my first trip to Israel
May the God who raised our Lord Jesus from the dead fill you and your family with His peace and power to proclaim the resurrection of His Son this season.
He is risen indeed!
Cory and The Cross Current Team
- Please pray for God’s great grace to rest on every blood-bought follower of Christ this weekend and beyond as we all worship and witness our Resurrected King!
- Please pray for God to give every Christian the boldness to share the gospel and every non-Christian in our lives the desire to receive Jesus as their Saviour and Lord.
- Please pray for God to graciously unify our EETN trainers, partner churches, and participants as we complete TCC’s first Gospel Unity Mission on May 23.