Day 1

This week’s devotions will be on Christ’s betrayal, the cross, and finally, the resurrection. Our Lord Jesus Christ had spent three years investing in His twelve disciples, plus hundreds of others who had chosen to follow Him. Christ knew He came to fulfill the Father’s will, but that did not make Jesus’s final week any easier. First, in Matt...

We know our Lord Jesus was betrayed by Judas, one of His original disciples. It is hard to imagine someone spending three years with our Lord and missing Christ as King of all kings and Lord of all lords, but people still do the same thing today. Every week, all over this country, people attend worship services and leave unchanged, having mis...

Today we examine Jesus’s second encounter with the governor, Pilate. Jesus’s first experience before Pilate is not recorded in Matthew, but it is in Luke 23:1–6. Pilate did not want to judge Jesus. We read in Luke 23:7 that when Pilate learned that Jesus was a Galilean, Pilate knew Jesus belonged under Herod’s jurisdiction. So, Pilate sent Je...

As we read through Matthew 27:27–32, we must remember that by this time, Jesus had already been severely beaten by the guards (Mark 14:65; Luke 22:63–65; John 18:22). Jesus had taken the worst beating anyone had ever had. His face would have been so swollen from the beatings and so disfigured He would hardly have seemed human. Then Jesus was ...

Christ underwent the most excruciating torment anyone could ever go through. Christ’s pain was not just physical, but it was the most profound spiritual pain as well. The soldiers offered Christ wine mixed with gall (Matthew 27:34, Mark 15:23), a drink to help numb the senses from this horrible death. Christ refused it because He did not want...

As we continue our walk through God’s Word, examining all that Christ went through on the cross for us, it is incredibly humbling. We must always remember that our Lord Jesus Christ willingly submitted to our Heavenly Father’s perfect will and laid down His life for all mankind so we could have life through Him (Colossians 3:4). Christ’s will...

Our Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross. His body was removed from the cross, and Joseph of Arimathea got permission from Pilate to put Jesus in his tomb. Matthew 27:62–66 records the meeting the chief priests and the Pharisees have with Pilate. These so-called religious leaders were afraid that Jesus’s disciples would steal Jesus’s body, try...