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O Sacred Head, Now Wounded


“O Sacred Head, Now Wounded”


O sacred Head, now wounded,
with grief and shame weighed down,
now scornfully surrounded
with thorns, thine only crown:
how pale thou art with anguish,
with sore abuse and scorn!
How does that visage languish
which once was bright as morn!


What thou, my Lord, has suffered
was all for sinners’ gain;
mine, mine was the transgression,
but thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior!
‘Tis I deserve thy place;
look on me with thy favor,
vouchsafe to me thy grace.


What language shall I borrow
to thank thee, dearest friend,
for this thy dying sorrow,
thy pity without end?
O make me thine forever;
and should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never


He is Risen Indeed


Next week is the most significant week of the Christian calendar and one that the broader culture will not help you prep for. Sure, the peeps and candy smorgasbords are filling aisles at Meijer and Pintrest-inspired bunny décor is being pinned and re-pinned. But those aren’t exactly pointing us to remember the “reason for the season.”

The Apostle Paul wrote, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.” That’s pretty significant, to say the least. And next week, we get the opportunity to join together with saints the world over to consider the weightiness of what it would mean for us to still be in our sins. And not just that, we get to join together with God’s global people in celebrating the fact that we aren’t!

Pause.

Consider that again.

We. Are. Not. Still. In. Our. Sins.

Why? Because God died to bring us out of them and then rose from the dead to defeat death.

Thanksgiving and Christmas are small beans in comparison to what Resurrection Sunday is marking. And being the most joyful people as blood-bought sons and daughters of God, we ought to convey to the world how great our God is through how we celebrate his wondrous, saving grace.

So how will you do that? What will you do this week to be prepared next week to soberly consider what life would be like if you were still stuck in your sins? How will you get ready to think about what it means that Jesus took on flesh at Christmas so it would be pummeled at Easter as a pointer to the wrath of God he was absorbing? How will you express to your children, neighbors, or coworkers that Easter is about death and life, not candy and ham?

Here are a few suggestions that may help you along the way as they have helped me:

  • Read a short excerpt once a day from Nancy Guthrie’s Jesus: Keep Me Near the Cross.
  • Listen to CJ Mahaney’s sermon “The Cry from the Cross.”
  • Check out the new devotional from Desiring God, Love to the Uttermost.
  • Read through the Gospels’ narrative of Jesus’ last week before he returned to the Father.
  • Host a meal with family, friends, and neighbors and go all out—use the good china, let the kids eat a ton of dessert, pull out the nice table cloths.

Maybe by making more of Holy Week and Resurrection Sunday, we can say with Paul that we have delivered of first importance that Christ died for our sins and was raised on the third day.

He is risen indeed.

 


The Father Forsakes the Son for Us


The midday sky turned black as grief. The veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom, like the angry shredding of a contract. Three exquisite hours of the world’s most grotesque suffering imaginable and the Son of God drank down to the last drop the full cup of God’s wrath for sin.

He gave his life as a ransom for many. The whole church past, present, and future is redeemed. Surely millions are included for the picture of the beneficiaries of this suffering; there number is “myriads upon myriads.” All these are saved because the Father forsook the Son—for us.

How could one man’s suffering redeem so many? How could three hours pay for even one person’s eternal destiny in Hell, let alone the Hell-stay of millions? The answer lies not in the numbers but in the nature of the Son of God.

When the awestruck centurion cried out, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” (Mark 15:39), he was proclaiming far more than he realized. The value of the Son of God being God is infinite. The value of the Father’s glory offended by the sin of the church is infinite. Thus, the Son’s fall from the heights of the Father’s glory to the abysmal depths of becoming our sin is infinite. The degradation, the shame, the ignominy, the utter rejection of the Father that Christ suffered at his death cannot be overstated—nor can it be fully appraised.

But we must. Ponder anew the darkened grief we should have over sin. Reflect on the rivers of animal blood that was sacrificed to foretell the final sacrifice in Christ. Think again of the infinite disdain for sin that roils within the holy Godhead, and marvel again at the infinite love for God’s glory and for his own Christ demonstrated on the cross.

What a great Savior!

 

Join us this Sunday at 10:45am as we come together to praise this great Savior as Pastor Brent returns to the Gospel of Mark.


Go to Him Outside the Camp


Since Jesus was crucified outside the city gate of Jerusalem on the mount of Golgotha, we too are to join him, outside the camp. The writer of Hebrews concludes, “Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured” (Hebrews 13:13).
 
“Going outside the camp” meant becoming a sojourner, a pilgrim, and an alien in this world—someone who is defined more by their journey here than any destination. All the great saints were on this same journey, being in this world but not of it, “having acknowledged they were strangers and exiles on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13). Their change of status from resident to pilgrim arose from their desires, new ones God had given them. “But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city”  (Hebrews 11:16).
 
It’s not that we who journey simply relish traveling. Just the opposite: here we’ve found only temporary cities. Only the one to come, one not built with human hands will last. “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come,” (Hebrews 13:14). We travel because we treasure the permanent, secure, unshakable glory of God, in the city of his making.
 
That glory is so precious, so satisfying, so valuable, that we are willing to endure all the reproaches Christ endured in order to gain it. Not because we must earn entrance to it—he has already paid our way—but because we see in Christ the same glory toward which we travel. “Therefore let us go to him outside the camp … .”
 
Is there any appeal to your flesh here in this world worth missing the eternal joy with Christ in God’s city of lasting glory to come?
 
 
Join us this Sunday as we worship Jesus together at 10:45am and hear Pastor Brent conclude the Gospel-Centered Vision & Values series by focusing on gospel-centered mission. And don't forget that Dayling Savings Time begins this weekend—time to "Spring forward."

Resolved: iParent Weekly Update


If your student does not regularly participate on Wednesday evenings, we encourage you to help us get your student connected. These are one of the main times of discipleship for our student ministry. We want to see the students at Five Points continue to go hard after God with one another. Please help us by encouraging your child's participation and we invite you to partner in prayer with us that God would give the Resolved: students eyes to see His glory in the face of Jesus and change us from one degree of glory to the next for our joy and His glory!

Brasil Team Fundraiser = The team is hosting a Mom 2 Mom sale at Five Points on Saturday, March 23. Please help us by spreading the word to your family and friends of this opportunity to sell your children’s clothing, toys, books, videos, furniture, etc. that they have outgrown. All proceeds go to support our missions trip this summer. Donations of baked goods for a Bake Sale are also needed. Please contact the church office if you have any questions.
 
Resolved: Spring Break Spectacular = Friday, April 5 from 7:00pm-Midnight. Students should bring $3 for pizza/snacks and clothes & shoes they can run in as we'll have a scavenger hunt in the building and games in the gym. Encourage your student to invite their friends!

 


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