Easter is my favorite holiday. I have fond childhood memories of candy hunts and Easter baskets and special outfits, but as I’ve grown up in my faith and as a worship leader, Easter has come to mean so much more. The anticipation of the new life coming from the earth that was dead in winter, the sobering remembrance of Good Friday, and the joyous celebration of Christ’s victory over death. The excitement in the room on Easter Sunday is invigoratingly contagious!
As I was preparing for Easter this year, I was reading through the events of Holy Week in Scripture. As I read through the familiar account of Jesus’ exchange with his disciples in the Garden in Mark 14, I was freshly struck by Jesus’ description of his emotional state in that moment. He describes himself as being “deeply distressed and troubled” and “deeply grieved to the point of death” (Mark 14:33-34). He knew what was coming for him. But more than just the physical pain and public humiliation that awaited him, he knew he was about to take on the weight of sin.
Think about sin for just a moment. Your sin. The sin of your family members, friends, and co-workers. The sin of misguided and evil people throughout all time. The sin that causes wars and genocide and mass shootings. The sin that tricks people into thinking they can write their own identity. The secret sins that destroy relationships. Christ was about to bear it all and face God’s terrible wrath. No wonder he was deeply distressed and grieved! He knew it had to be done. He knew this was the good and perfect plan of the Father. And so, because of his great love for me, and you, and all of humanity, he did it.
As the Easter season has come to a close, I’ve been pondering this great love of Christ and what it means for me. We are about to enter a teaching series on some of the later chapters of the gospel of John, where Jesus is going to candidly teach his disciples what it looks like when a person truly loves and is committed to him. So I’ve been asking myself, as I seek to fully celebrate the weight and wonder of Easter, how do I respond to so great a love?
Our new song “The Sending” is a challenge to be stirred to action, motivated by the love and grace that we have experienced, and led by the power of the Holy Spirit. We’ll see in our study of John how Jesus promised the Spirit as an advocate and counselor – the very presence of God dwelling within believers for the purpose of displaying God to the world (Acts 1:8). As we worship together, I pray that the Spirit would indeed move in our hearts that we would be filled with God’s love for His people – just like Christ was for us.
Looking for some music to enrich your personal worship throughout the week? Check our Calvary Worship Favorites playlist on Spotify. It’s an assortment of songs that we sing on the regular during our Sunday worship services.
If you want to get a taste of what we’ll be singing on any upcoming Sunday, check out our This Sunday At Calvary playlist. This list is updated weekly with the songs we’re planning to lead at the upcoming Sunday service.
The Sending
Oh Holy Spirit move in our hearts
Send us with power into the world
Oh Holy Spirit move in our hearts
Fill us with fire and love for the world
We are gathered in Your name
With expectancy and faith
We are waiting we are waiting
Give us boldness to proclaim
All the wonders of Your grace
We are ready we are ready
Your compassion for the lost
Love that sent You to the cross
We receive it we receive it
Jesus You are worth it all
No matter what the cost
We believe it we believe it
Let this room be shaken
Let our hearts be broken
Let Your church awaken
To Your love
CCLI Song # 7130332
Brett Younker | Jess Cates | Kristian Stanfill | Leeland Mooring
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“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
John 14:15-17 (NIV)
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
John 15:9-13
But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”
John 16:13-15
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Acts 1:8 (NIV)