Dr Paul Allen

Holy Week is an anticipation of the Lord’s paschal mystery.  Pascha   is an ancient way to speak of the events of Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection. It is a Greek word corresponding to the Hebrew   pesah , which means “pass over.” In the Jewish tradition, this word refers to the angel of death   passing over   the homes in Egypt marked with the blood of a spotless lamb and also to God’s people   passing through   the Red Sea to escape Pharaoh’s army. Both meanings are present in Holy Week: Christ is the Lamb of God who causes death to  pass over  those marked with his blood, and he  passes through  the “Red Sea” (i.e., the grave) to deliver us from death, thereby defeating death by death. We celebrate Easter on the Sunday after the Jewish Passover. Holy Week: A journey through the Passion Narrative Each day of Holy Week is significant. The Four Gospels, taken together, cover about three decades. However, most of the text in ...

It is Sunday, April 5, AD 33 . This day will change the entire course of world history , more than any other day before or after, though only a handful of people will know this by day’s end. In an ancient, arid, Near Eastern city, one singular event will occur this day, unleashing a movement so compelling, so enduring, so influential, so unstoppable that two thousand years and billions of adherents later, it will still be growing, faster than ever, while the mighty empire that witnesses its birth will long lay in ancient ruins. This movement will shape nations, span oceans, birth universities, launch hospitals, transform tribal peoples in the world’s remotest places, and be spoken, read, and sung about in more languages than any other religious movement by far. That singular event? The body of Jesus of Nazareth will exit his tomb. The Women The not-yet-risen sun is coloring the sky with purples and blues, the high clouds with reds and oranges, as a handful of women...

The Resurrection of Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) This coming Sunday morning April 5th at Hope Church Australia , we will gather together as the people of the risen King who delight to bring Him praise, and will celebrate the triumphant victory of King Jesus, who died for our sins according to the Scriptures, who was buried in a borrowed tomb, and who three days later rose from the grave, triumphant and victorious over sin and death. But the heights of our praise will not exceed the depth of our theology. Our praise to Christ can only soar as high as our understanding of His glorious person and work is rooted in the rich soil of God ’s Word. Our worship of Christ for His resurrection will not rise higher than our understanding of His resurrection. And so to enflame our worship of the risen Lord Jesus Christ as we anticipate this Easter Resurrection Sunday, I want us to think on the biblical and theological significance of the resurrection of Christ . Today I want to focus pa...