FBC Daily Devotional – March 31, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, a good Wednesday to you, middle of the week, and normally on Wednesday we have a midweek service at 7 o 'clock at the church, but not this week.

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This is a special week, of course, it's a passion week, it's a week leading up to Resurrection Sunday, a great day of celebration, but before we have that celebration of the

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Resurrection, we gather together tomorrow evening on Thursday at 7 o 'clock and have a

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Maundy Thursday service, and this is a service where we read the scriptures related to the betrayal of Jesus, his time with his disciples in the upper room, the

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Last Supper, we enjoy communion together, have the Lord's Table together, and then rehearse the scripture passages that lead up to the crucifixion, and by the time the evening is over, tomorrow evening, we end the evening with the crucifixion that leaves us hungry and eager and anticipating

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Resurrection Sunday. So no service tonight, midweek service, but we will be meeting tomorrow evening at 7 o 'clock.

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We may be doing that by live stream, so pay attention to Facebook Live, or check out the church website a little before 7 o 'clock tomorrow evening if you can't make it for the service itself.

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In our reading schedule, we've come to the end of Matthew's Gospel, to Matthew chapter 28, and the chapter begins wonderfully in the sense that these same women that we left off the other day at the tomb, sitting at the tomb watching as Joseph of Arimathea laid

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Jesus' body to rest, they come back to the tomb on Easter Sunday morning, and they find it empty, and so here it is, these same couple of women who showed such love and devotion to Jesus in his death, also get to experience first the good news that Jesus is not here.

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He has risen, as he said, and they are instructed to go tell his disciples that he has risen and that Jesus will meet them at a predetermined place on a mountain in Galilee.

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And so off the women go, and they tell the other disciples, who of course don't believe them, the women, that is, don't believe that what they said is so, it takes a little bit of convincing before they finally come to accept that.

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But I want you to notice how the chapter, and therefore the book of Matthew, ends. You come to this last section and verses 16 and following, and the 11, there would have been 12 except Judas is dead, the betrayer, the traitor, he's dead, he's gone.

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So there's 11 left, these 11 disciples whom Jesus has chosen to be the apostles.

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Now, keep in mind what that's going to mean. Later on, we find that these 11, and then a 12th to replace

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Judas, become the foundation of the church. In fact, in Revelation 21, we are given that image of the church, the

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Bride of Christ as the new Jerusalem, and John describes it as having foundation stones that are the 12 apostles.

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These are the foundation. All right, so these are the guys who are supposed to lay the foundation for the church.

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And they are at this mountain in Galilee where Jesus appointed for them to meet him, and Jesus shows up.

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And we read that, when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted.

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Some doubted. Some of the 11 doubted. Now the general consensus was he is to be worshipped, but some doubted.

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Isn't that interesting? Isn't that fascinating? Don't you find encouragement in that? Are you a fully perfect Christian, one who never lapses in your faith, your confidence in the

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Lord and his promises and all the rest of that? You're just absolutely perfect in your trust in the

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Lord. There's never any equivocation. There's never any shaking of your faith whatsoever, not in the least bit.

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Well, if that's you, blessings on you. For the rest of us, I think we can find some encouragement here, that some of those men who were the closest followers of Jesus and had been with him day in and day out for quite some time, some of them doubted that the resurrected

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Jesus, who was right there in front of them, was in fact the resurrected Jesus, that he actually had risen from the dead.

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Some of them doubted. And it was to them that Jesus turns around and he says to them,

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All authority is given unto me, and go, as you are going, wherever you're going, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the

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Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I've commanded you. And he says,

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Lo, I am with you always, Jesus promises. Doesn't seem very hopeful for a church, the church, does it?

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That mission is entrusted to these 11 men, some of whom doubted at that moment?

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Well, as you know the rest of the story, those lingering doubts vanished, and they were eventually convinced beyond all doubt, even willing to give their lives for the truth that Jesus, the

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Messiah, did indeed rise from the dead. We serve a living, risen

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Savior. And they testified of it, eventually. Let's give thanks to our

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Lord for his patience, his patience with us, with his disciples, with his followers, because we don't always get things quickly.

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We're not always quick learners, are we? He patiently deals with us, patiently works with us, and patiently continues to teach us, to bring us along, and bring us to that point of firm conviction that we desperately need.

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So thank the Lord for just that little line here in verse 17, that some doubted.

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I suppose we could also find a little bit of irony in this, couldn't we? That the women who start off this chapter, who don't seem to have a wavering faith, who seem to be pretty firm and convinced in their faith, this mission isn't entrusted to them.

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It's entrusted to some individuals who are less than stellar in their faith at that time.

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But thank God in his grace, he grew them up, strengthened them, deepened them, even as he will for you and for me.

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So our Father and our God, we thank you for the testimony of your grace in the lives of these individuals, men whose faith wasn't all that it should have been, even at that time, but men with whom you worked, and you grew, and you developed, and you so worked in their lives that they even gave their lives for the truth that Jesus is the

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Christ, the Son of the living God, and that he ever lives. We thank you for their testimony, thank you for their example, thank you for your grace in their lives, and for the encouragement and hope that it gives to us.

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And we thank you in Jesus' name, amen. Well, alright, have a good rest of your middle -of -the -week day, and I trust