Join the Renew Church family for worship on Resurrection Sunday / Easter
*Continuing this series during Holy Week, tracing the final days of Jesus, with help from book and series from Crossway and the Scripture text from the ESV Study Bible to attempt a harmon/chronology of the words and actions of Jesus in the final week of His pre-resurrection life. Video for each day included at the bottom of the reading.*
* What happened on Friday, April 3, AD 33?
* What happened on Thursday, April 2, AD 33?
* What happened on Wednesday, April 1, AD 33?
* What happened on Tuesday, March 31, AD 33?
* What happened on Monday, March 30, AD 33?
* What happened Palm Sunday, March 29, AD 33, commencing Holy Week?
Today we remember Holy Saturday, a moment of pausing and waiting with the first Disciples to see if Jesus’ promises of rising again to life would come true.Saturday—The Forgotten Day For a full account of the events of this day as found in the Gospels, see Matthew 27:62–66:
The Guard at the Tomb62 The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate 63 and said, “Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’ 64 Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last fraud will be worse than the first.” 65 Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can.” 66 So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard.
Less is written about the Saturday following Jesus’s crucifixion than any other in the scope of this week. Yet what makes it unique is that this is the only full day in history where the body of Christ lies buried in a cave.
Yesterday, he was crucified. Tomorrow, he rises from the grave. But what about today? Though we may not make much of this day, when we look at the few verses the Gospels give us about it, we find it was by no means forgotten by the chief priests who had handed Jesus over to death. During his earthly ministry, Jesus repeatedly said he would die in Jerusalem at the hands of the chief priests, yet on the third day rise again (e.g., Matt. 12:40; Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:34).
Of course, the chief priests scoffed. But they didn’t forget it. On the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, Jesus’s prediction preoccupies their thoughts such that they simply can’t leave it alone. Matthew 27:62–66 tells the strange story of how they can’t dismiss out of hand the possibility that Jesus might know something they don’t.
Saturday, April 4, AD 33