Church Family,
As we work our way through Matthew’s account of Passion Week, this past Sunday brought us to Good Friday, the day on which Jesus was put on trial and crucified. Two charges were made against Jesus, that he claimed to be the Son of God and that he claimed to be King of the Jews. To both the Roman and Jewish authorities these claims were traitorous and heretical. But Jesus contested neither of these charges, instead answering both with the words “you have said so.” Jesus in fact claimed these things about himself, yet was justified because his claims were true. The authorities, blinded by sin, simply could not see the reality of who Jesus was. Ironically, as they levied charges against him and mocked him, they only served to proclaim the truth of who Jesus is. As we reflect on this passage this week, let us consider how sin can keep us from seeing the truth that God has put right before us, and so grieve the ugliness of our sin. And let us pray that God would open our eyes so we might clearly see Christ our Savior and Lord.
Events in the Valley
Lots of fantastic conferences come to the Phoenix area so we wanted to take a second to highlight two that might be of interest and valuable to our church. First is Holy Sexuality and the Gospel on April 8th. This lecture hosted by Phoenix Seminary will address how to bring the Gospel into the modern conversation around gender and sexuality. The second is Brave in Babylon on April 12th & 13th. This conference put on by The Gospel Coalition will focus on faithful and hopeful Christian living in an increasingly secular age.
Easter Schedule
While we have been studying Passion Week for over a month now, the week itself is finally here. As a quick reminder of the slight schedule changes, on the evening of Good Friday we will be having a service at 5:30, then Easter morning we will have a time of fellowship at 9:00 instead of our usual Sunday Studies, followed by our usual 10:15 worship service.
Grace be with you,
Logan Murphy
Pastoral Intern