[SPEAKER_00]: Christian parenting.
[SPEAKER_00]: In yesterday episode, we learned about the death of Jesus on the cross.
[SPEAKER_00]: The body of Jesus was wrapped in linen cloth and placed in a tomb.
[SPEAKER_00]: All seemed lost.
[SPEAKER_00]: The poor disciples, they had gone into hiding and locked the doors behind them for fear that the Jewish leaders might come after them too.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wonder what they were thinking.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wonder if they were feeling hopeless and afraid.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wonder if they were thinking, how could the man we have followed as our master, teacher and friend for the past three years have been killed?
[SPEAKER_00]: Was it he the one who was supposed to be the Messiah?
[SPEAKER_00]: This wasn't supposed to happen to the Messiah, or was it?
[SPEAKER_00]: If only the disciples had listened closely to what Jesus had said, they would have gone back to a conversation he had with them, not that long ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: Peter of all people should have remembered, for it was one afternoon, when it was just Jesus and his disciples in private.
[SPEAKER_00]: No one else was around, and Jesus was praying.
[SPEAKER_00]: His disciples were with him, and suddenly, Jesus said to them,
[SPEAKER_00]: Who do the crowds of people say I am?
[SPEAKER_00]: They replied, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and still others that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then Jesus looked directly at his disciples and asked, but you, what about you?
[SPEAKER_00]: Who do you say I am?
[SPEAKER_00]: the disciples had to think.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who was Jesus?
[SPEAKER_00]: Was He just a good teacher?
[SPEAKER_00]: Was He just a carpenter's son?
[SPEAKER_00]: Was He a prophet?
[SPEAKER_00]: Then with great insight, Peter spoke up and said, you are Christ, the son of the living God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Peter proclaimed with his own words that Jesus was not just a man.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was God Himself, Emmanuel, living among them.
[SPEAKER_00]: This was a big declaration to make, to admit that Jesus was God was bold.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not everyone understood that Jesus was God.
[SPEAKER_00]: then Jesus went on to tell them something that was going to happen to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, cheap priests and teachers of the law and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wait a minute.
[SPEAKER_00]: Did you hear that?
[SPEAKER_00]: What did Jesus tell his disciples?
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, He must be killed, and on the third day be raised to life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Did the disciples remember this?
[SPEAKER_00]: In all of their sadness and fear, did they remember what Jesus had told them?
[SPEAKER_00]: He told them he would die.
[SPEAKER_00]: He told them this would happen.
[SPEAKER_00]: But wait, what else was there?
[SPEAKER_00]: On the third day, he would be raised to life the third day.
[SPEAKER_00]: What day is today?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yesterday he died.
[SPEAKER_00]: So today is the second day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Tomorrow is the third day.
[SPEAKER_00]: It couldn't be.
[SPEAKER_00]: Could it?
[SPEAKER_00]: No one has ever raised themselves from the dead, besides that huge stone is in front of the tomb, there is no way he could get out of there.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, surely that can't be.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the disciples waited.
[SPEAKER_00]: They waited behind locked doors for an unknown future.
[SPEAKER_00]: It probably felt like the longest day of their lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: If they had the words of Isaiah in front of them,
[SPEAKER_00]: they might have been able to read another clue that Isaiah had given about the coming Messiah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Have you heard of the prophet Isaiah?
[SPEAKER_00]: Isaiah lived hundreds of years before Jesus was born.
[SPEAKER_00]: He like Zachariah had prophesied about a coming Messiah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you know what clue Isaiah gave the people to look for?
[SPEAKER_00]: You see, Zachariah had told the people to look for a Messiah riding a donkey.
[SPEAKER_00]: Isaiah told the people to look for a Messiah who would suffer and die.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here are the words of Isaiah in chapter 53 versus 3 through 10.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering, like one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not.
[SPEAKER_00]: Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted.
[SPEAKER_00]: but he was pierced for our transgressions.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was crushed for our inequities.
[SPEAKER_00]: The punishment that brought us peace was upon him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And by his wounds, we are healed.
[SPEAKER_00]: We all like sheep have gone astray.
[SPEAKER_00]: Each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the sin of us all.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was oppressed and afflicted yet he did not open his mouth.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shears is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was assigned a grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death.
[SPEAKER_00]: though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth, yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_00]: Isaiah had spoken those words hundreds of years before Jesus was ever born.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think the disciples might have forgotten about that prophecy.
[SPEAKER_00]: If they would have just gone back and read Isaiah's words, they might have been comforted to know that this was all part of God's plan.
[SPEAKER_00]: This was the plan all along for Jesus to suffer, to take upon Him our sins and die.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if they would have kept reading Isaiah, in verse 11 they would have found another clue, a good clue, an exciting clue.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you know what Isaiah said?
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, after the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied.
[SPEAKER_00]: Did you hear that?
[SPEAKER_00]: After he suffers, he will see the light of life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Life, Isaiah was getting a big clue that Jesus would not stay dead.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were to look for a Messiah who would come back to life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, today is a quiet day, a day we wait, just like the disciples did for what happens next.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just because they didn't see anything happening.
[SPEAKER_00]: Doesn't mean that God wasn't doing something behind the scenes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes we have to wait on God, but that does not mean he is not moving and working.
[SPEAKER_00]: Waiting is a part of life that teaches us to trust God.
[SPEAKER_00]: When a mother hand lays her eggs, she has to wait up to 21 days before her eggs hatch and she can see her baby chicks.
[SPEAKER_00]: Does that mean nothing is happening inside the eggs even though she can't see it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course not.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those baby chicks are growing and becoming strong enough to break out of those shells, even though no one can see it on the inside.
[SPEAKER_00]: When a farmer plants a seed in the ground and waters it, he has to wait for it to sprout and grow food.
[SPEAKER_00]: but he has to wait for that seed to go deep into the ground and begin to open and sprout roots that will stick in the ground to keep the plant rooted.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it does not blow away and so it can get food from the soil.
[SPEAKER_00]: Does this mean nothing is happening under the ground even though the farmer can't see it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course not.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just because we don't always see God moving and working does not mean that he isn't.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just because Jesus was in the grave and the disciples couldn't see Him, didn't mean that something wasn't about to happen.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can trust God in the waiting seasons of our life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes God asks us to wait on Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: so we can learn to trust Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: God wants us to trust Him even when we can't see Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: The disciples needed to have faith that this wasn't the end of the story for Jesus or for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you are waiting on God, you can trust Him and believe that He is doing a new thing in your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's be like the mother hen or the farmer who waits patiently, knowing and believing that something good is coming, even though we might not see it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Victory is coming, my friends, don't lose hope, victory is just around the corner.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me pray with you before we go.
[SPEAKER_00]: Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are working and moving and doing new things all the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even when we might not see you working, we choose to put all of our hope and all of our faith in you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You said that without faith, it is impossible to please you.
[SPEAKER_00]: We believe
[SPEAKER_00]: But help our unbelief, when we are tempted to doubt or lose hope strengthened our hearts by your spirit living inside of us, the disciples might have thought they were living the worst day of their lives, but in reality, it was about to be the best day of their lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: They just needed to wait a little bit longer to see it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Help us not to give up on you, but to wait patiently for all you are doing, as you cause us to look more and more like Jesus every day.
[SPEAKER_00]: We may not see the victory right now, but we can believe that it is coming in Jesus' name.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for joining me today two seekers and be sure to tune in tomorrow as we finish up our series with the last episode Easter Sunday.
[SPEAKER_00]: The best day I'll talk to you tomorrow.
[UNKNOWN]: You