When it was evening, a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who himself was a disciple of Jesus, went to Pilate to ask for Jesus’ body…

Today we look at just two lines of Scripture. When the centurion witnessed the death of Jesus, he praised God and said, “Truly this was the Son of God,” and, “Surely this man was innocent.”…

There are moments in Scripture where you can almost feel creation holding its breath. This is one of them.

John 19:28–30 is one of those passages that makes you want to slow right down, take a breath, and really see what’s happening at the cross. John tells us that, knowing everything was now completed, Jesus said, “I thirst.” That wasn’t random…

Now it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness all over the earth until the ninth hour. Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two…

At the foot of the cross in the Gospel of John 19:25–27, we witness a deeply intimate and human moment in the midst of unimaginable suffering…

“This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”
They put this above His head on a sign to humiliate Him, being sarcastic and trying to mock Him. It shows that when Jesus was nailed to the cross, He was willing to experience all the suffering in order to bring forgiveness for our sin…

One of the most remarkable moments of vulnerability that I remember from Ps Bill Johnson was when his wife Benny passed away. Just days after her passing, he stood in front of the church and said something that was just too deep then as it is now. He said something like this (I'm paraphrasing)…

Jesus Bearing the Cross - Simon of Cyrene is suddenly pulled from the crowd and forced to carry Jesus’ cross on the way to Golgotha...

Whenever I read these passages, I feel a bit of a sinking feeling in my stomach at how cruel these soldiers were. So ready to beat and mock Jesus, even dressing him as a king with a robe and crowning him with thorns…

Jesus was always going to die. So why did this part have to happen? You could look at this and think 'the cruelty, the injustice, what the HECK, how could they have chosen Barabbas over Jesus? Were they crazy? What was going on there? To be honest, it sounds a lot like the questions I sometimes ask myself when I hear the news, or when I see people living their lives apart from God…

I love how John, in the passage we are looking at (v. 28), begins with the irony of the Jewish leaders. They won’t enter the place where Pilate resides because they don’t want to be defiled and miss the Passover meal. Yet, they are sending Jesus to the Romans because, by law, they could not execute Him, but the Romans could.

The religious rulers are feeling threatened and had a plan to trap Jesus by trying to get him to ‘blaspheme’ in front of the court by saying that he is the Son of God…

At the foot of the Mount of Olives there is a garden where the olives are taken to be crushed to release their precious oil. It is called Gethsemane, the oil press…

I love the passage in John 15, where Jesus uses the analogy of Himself as the vine, us as the branches, and the Father as the vinedresser (or gardener)…

One thing I really like to do is go to football matches. When you are walking towards the stadium, there are lots of people heading in the same direction, and nine times out of ten you can tell they are going to the game because they are either talking about it or wearing some form of merchandise with the team badge on…

As I read this passage in John’s gospel again, I was reminded of the Aaronic blessing in Numbers 6:22–27. The significance is that the Hebrew word for “bless” is barak, the root of which means “to kneel.” Imagine that! Here is God saying that He Himself will kneel before us, to serve and honour us. God on His knees right in front of us!

There’s something strangely ordinary about the moment Jesus chose to change everything…

The disciples prepare. It’s not the first time they’ve celebrated the Passover with Jesus. Since he called them, the disciples have gone with him to all the major festivals. But this feels different…

Welcome to Day 1 of our devotional journey through Lent. We are so excited for what God is going to speak to you, what He is going to do in you, and the encounters you will have with Him as we reflect on Him and journey towards Easter…