Furnished and Ready

Furnished and Ready

“He will show you a large upper room, furnished

 and ready. Make preparations for us there.”

                                                 Mark 14:15

As we celebrate Easter this year, the completeness of what Jesus accomplished on the cross for you and I has stood out to me like never before. Isaiah tells us that He “bore our iniquities” and that “the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” But Isaiah also tells us about so much more that was accomplished in the sufferings of Christ. An example is the peace that Christ purchased for us at Calvary. In Isaiah 53:5, we are told that “the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him.”We can walk in peace during the most ferocious storms of life because of what Jesus endured as He went to the cross. To the one who feels like they can’t handle one more thing, there is a peace available to you today, a peace that Jesus paid for in full as He was punished for our sins.

We can look to the same verse in Isaiah and read “by His stripes we are healed.” Healing in its many aspects was provided for in Christ as He received those thirty-nine lashes to purchase our healing. And that includes inner healing from emotional pain and suffering as well as physical healing from disease and sickness; by His stripes we are healed! We need to look closely at the work of the cross, with eyes and hearts open, to fully see all that Christ has done for us. And with that discovery, we can approach the throne of God’s grace with a renewed boldness and confidence.

Jesus was “a man of sorrows” who bore our sorrows and pain as He walked from the Garden of Gethsemane where He was arrested to Calvary, the place of His crucifixion. There is no sorrow you will endure, no pain you will experience, no suffering you will face that the Lord did not go through and win the victory over. You will not face a trial that He is unprepared to comfort you in and help you through. Are you lonely? The Bible records that all men forsook Jesus in the hour of His greatest need. Do you feel no one understands? Jesus was despised, a pretty strong word, by the very people He came to save. Are you at the end of your rope? Jesus was crushed, cut off, rejected by men and stricken by God, oppressed and afflicted yet He opened not His mouth in complaint, choosing to trust the plan of His Father. And at the end of the day, that will of the Father prospered in the life of Jesus as it will in your life by God’s grace.

It is as if a table is furnished and ready for you and I, the table of the Lord, filled with the fruits of the cross for all those with eyes open to see and hearts open to receive this Easter.

God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church