04/19/2025
JOIN US – RESURRECTION SUNDAY
7:00 A.M. – Sunrise Service – Jones Chapel Baptist
9:00 A.M. – Sunday School – Mt. Calvary
Classes for Children, Teens and Adults
10:00 A.M. – PASTOR APPRECIATION & FAREWELL FELLOWSHIP
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON REFLECTIONS & VIDEO LINKS – APRIL 20, 2025
Lesson Reflections by Pastor Glenn M. Prince
They Couldn’t Keep Him Down—Christ Dies & Rises to New Life
Background Passage: Matthew 27:24-28:10
Print Passage: Matthew 27:39-40, 45-54; 28:1-10
DEVOTIONAL READING: Hebrews 2:1-13
Key Verse: ““And as they went to tell the disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All Hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him.” (Matthew 28:9, KJV)
Introduction
In this lesson, Matthew shares from his Jewish perspective that the new Moses – Jesus, was the King of the Jews. The Messiah. The lesson brings us immediately to the central event of our Christian faith. The crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection of our Savior. In one moment in time, we find that everything up to this point in humanity’s relationship with the one true and living God comes to a climactic transition. We can now begin to understand God’s larger plan through all of history. With this pinnacle event, we can get a glimpse of how everything has changed.
What events have happened in our national history, the history of our people, and our personal lives, that have fundamentally altered how we understand our past and move into a new future?
Lesson Illuminated
Matthew 27:39-40. Jesus suffered unimaginable horrors on his way to, and upon the cross. Matthew shares the sad reality that, in addition to this physically torturous circumstance, people stood by and mocked Jesus. Using his words against him and taunting him with their morbid curiosity and self-righteous behavior. Their cruelty is reminiscent of those who postured themselves by the oak trees or gallows to watch people of African descent be lynched. It wasn’t enough to position them for a painful death, they had to verbalize an absurd hate in order to attempt to justify their demonic action. Yet their hatred could best be understood in the context of fear. Here were the people they used to produce their wealth, raise their children, feed their families and build their homes better than they could have themselves. They selected a remnant of them to scapegoat their own insufficiencies and sinfulness.
Likewise, God created and sustains everything these mockers know of as life. God’s son not only spoke peace, freed captives, healed the sick and raised the dead, but he could also come down. Jesus, who was crucified by the most powerful authority on earth – the Roman Government; could call upon the armies of Heaven to rescue him and destroy all who opposed him. BUT he would not come down. He chose to offer redemption to all humanity.
Matthew 25:45-54. This protracted suffering of our Lord and Savior being nailed to wooden beams, lasted for over 6 hours. During this time his first recorded utterance of pain came; not from the thorns on his head, the lashing of his back, or even the nine-inch spikes hammered through flesh and bone, but from the inner pain of God turning from him as he became sin for our sake. When he yells, “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?”, Jesus is crying out from the horror of separation. In addition, Matthew gives us a glimpse into what was on the mind of Jesus. We know it as the 22nd Psalm. This exclamation was prophetically uttered by David over one thousand years before. The psalm itself shares many of the details of this final sacrificial event.
Then the hypocrisy of the mockers was on full display as they wait and see if something miraculous would occur for the one whom they would not trade for Barabbas and chose to place between two thieves. They thought he was calling for Elijah.
The miraculous did occur, but not what they expected. The sky went dark, the earth quaked, the rocks split, the tombs opened, the dead rose, the soldiers trembled, and the curtain was split. The curtain splitting might seem the least eventful, but it was actually presenting the greatest sign. The temple curtain separated people from the Holy of Holies. The tearing of this 4” thick, 60’ high tapestry from top to bottom, displayed that Jesus’ sacrifice provided full and permanent access for the people to approach the throne of God. A gift of grace from God and not the works of humanity.
The people’s cruelty and mockery begged for a response, but Jesus showed restraint. Descendants of Mother Africa have suffered morbidly at the hands of a country acting out white supremacy, yet they chose to fight for the written ideals of this country at home and abroad, even though they were not currently benefitting.
Matthew 28:1-10. Jesus’ end had come; or so the Roman and Jewish authorities thought and plotted. BUT GOD! The women who did not flee as the apostles did, arrived with love to tend to the ritual honoring of their friend and Lord. They received a many-fold blessing for their faithfulness. They witnessed an angel, saw the evidence of the empty tomb, were greeted by their LIVING Lord, and were given their marching orders.
Jesus said, “Tell the disciples what you have seen and to meet me in Galilee”. (Meaning: Coming full Circle).
Conclusion
The greatest authorities in the region conspired to permanently silence the one who challenged their presumed power. They abused him beyond recognition (Isaiah 52:14), hung him from a tree for mockery, and cast him into a tomb. BUT GOD! They couldn’t keep Him down. He rose from the abuse, humiliation and death to offer us life more abundantly, and to meet us in Galilee. God used His Son’s obedience, sacrifice and victory, to bring us back to full fellowship with Him. Full circle back to walking with God in the midst of Eden.
