Devotional
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Daily Readings: John 1 and Psalm 29 Today we begin our journey through John’s Gospel. We will read it slightly out of chronological chapter order by virtue of taking a detour to chapters 12-19 next week, so that we can focus on the events of Holy Week as recorded in John. The Gospel of John,…
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Daily Readings: Matthew 28 and Psalm 28 And then, at dawn on the Sunday after His horrifying death, the Lord Jesus was raised from the dead by the power of God. The moment of the resurrection is never described in the Gospels, because it happened ‘behind closed doors’ in the sealed tomb. There were no…
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Daily Readings: Matthew 27 and Psalm 27 It all happened so quickly after Jesus was betrayed, arrested, abandoned and falsely accused that Thursday night (Matt. 26). Early on the Friday morning, shortly after the rooster crowed the third time, Jesus was already hauled off to the palace of Pilate, the Roman governor. Standing alone and…
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Daily Readings: Matthew 26 and Psalm 26 In Matthew 26, Jesus faced a huge variety of responses. Radical opposition (v.1-5), indignant misunderstanding (v.8-9) and murderous betrayal (v.14-16) contrasted deeply with lavish love (v.6-7) and great generosity and kindness (v.17-19). Judas tried to fool Jesus (v.20-25), while Peter was only fooling himself (v.31-35). And eventually, the…
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Daily Readings: Matthew 25 and Psalm 25 The three parables in Matthew 25 continue the theme of our calling to be faithful to the tasks to which Jesus has called us. Our Lord Jesus calls us to remain faithful at all times. He calls us to be mindful that He is right at hand and…
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Daily Readings: Matthew 24 and Psalm 24 I suspect the disciples might have regretted asking, “When will this (the destruction of the Temple) happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?”, as it triggered a very long answer from Jesus, filled with plenty of unpleasant truths…
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Daily Reading: Matthew 23 and Psalm 23 Make no mistake, Jesus deeply loved each individual Pharisee, and He longed to gather them to Himself just as much as He longed to do so for the rest of Jerusalem (v.37). However, they were so filled with religious pride and arrogant self-sufficiency that they were blind to…
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Daily Readings: Matthew 22 and Psalm 22 Jesus was in Jerusalem and the two most powerful Jewish religious parties, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, were trying desperately to discredit Him with the crowds, or to trap Him into saying something that would land Him in hot water with the Roman authorities. His popularity frightened them.…
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Daily Reading: Matthew 21 and Psalm 21 Having preached on corporate prayer yesterday, it’s very tempting to focus only on Jesus’ declaration in v.13 “My house will be called a house of prayer,” (quoting Isaiah 56:7). But, despite how zealously we see Jesus longing for His people to be a people of prayer, this chapter…
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Daily Readings: Matthew 20 and Psalm 20 The chapters of Matthew we have read this week (16-20) are regularly punctuated by the refrain that in God’s Kingdom, the first will be last, the last will be first, and the greatest will be the one who takes the lowest place. Clearly, Jesus aimed to emphasize this…
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