Grace Community Church of Ramona Podcast

As we continue God’s Story of Hope Jesus will reveal something that will not make sense to His disciples. But in the end they will see Jesus was right. We pick up the story early on a Sunday morning in April 33AD.

Now that Judas is out of the room and into the night, Jesus concludes the last Passover feast in a very intimate way. Speaking dearly to the eleven, He institutes a new type of remembrance. Jesus picks up a cup of wine and some bread. This cup is the third cup of wine that is drunk during the Passover meal. It comes after the main course. It is called The Cup of Redemption. In the Jewish Passover it was symbolic of the blood of the lamb that was sacrificed at the first Passover in Egypt.

Last week we ended with Jesus and his disciples in the town of Bethany. Jesus had just called out a dead man from his grave. The countryside was ablaze with the news, and since Bethany is less than two miles from Jerusalem, the leaders of Israel heard the news quickly.

It is pretty easy to make an incredible claim. Many people do it all time. From Muhammad Ali's "I am the greatest" speech, to the friend who somehow always has that lower golf score when he’s not with you. It is not difficult to make these claims, the real challenge comes when a person is called on to prove it.

Christmas Message

Life is full of the unexpected. Sometimes positive and sometimes negative. If you think back just this week you can probably identify some of both. Our story in this section will be no exception. Jesus has been baptized, overcome the temptation of Lucifer in the wilderness and has been proclaimed the Son of God and the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

The promised rescuer has arrived! The son of Eve, the son of Abraham, the son of David, and most incredibly, and unbelievably, the Son of God. The silence of the last 400 years has been shattered with the proclamation that not only is God speaking again, but He has actually come in the flesh to be with His most precious creation again, and to rescue them once and for all.

Last week we were working through the times of the Judges, Prophets, and Kings. This took us from the book of Judges, all the way to the end of the Old Testament. During the span of those years, the Israelites seemed to be on an endless cycle of self destruction. Forgetting their Creator and Savior, they would drift from the truth and into the worship of false gods.

Forty years have passed since God delivered the Israelites out of the clutches of Pharaoh. The exodus generation, those who had seen the many signs and wonders of the Lord, now had died off. Even their great leader, Moses, had given over to the curse of death.