Scripture referenced 22 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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John 11:43-44 Jesus raising Lazarus, commanding him to come forth
43 When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
44 He who was dead came out, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Free him, and let him go.”
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Matthew 21:8-11
triumphal entry, crowd shouting Hosanna to the son of David
8 A very great multitude spread their clothes on the road. Others cut branches from the trees, and spread them on the road.
9 The multitudes who went in front of him, and those who followed, kept shouting, “Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
10 When he had come into Jerusalem, all the city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?”
11 The multitudes said, “This is the prophet, Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”
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Matthew 21:12-13
Jesus cleansing the temple, overturning money changers' tables
12 Jesus entered into the temple of God, and drove out all of those who sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the money changers’ tables and the seats of those who sold the doves.
13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers!”
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Isaiah 56:7
my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples
7 I will bring these to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”
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Isaiah 35:5-6
eyes of the blind opened, lame leaping, signs of the Messiah
5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.
6 Then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing; for waters will break out in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.
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Matthew 21:14-16
blind and lame healed in the temple, children shouting Hosanna, leaders indignant
14 The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.
15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children who were crying in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the son of David!” they were indignant,
16 and said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” Jesus said to them, “Yes. Did you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing babies you have perfected praise?’”
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Psalm 8:1-2
out of the mouths of infants you have prepared praise
1 Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth, who has set your glory above the heavens!
2 From the lips of babes and infants you have established strength, because of your adversaries, that you might silence the enemy and the avenger.
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Mark 14:12-16
Jesus sending two disciples to prepare the Passover, man with pitcher of water
12 On the first day of unleavened bread, when they sacrificed the Passover, his disciples asked him, “Where do you want us to go and prepare that you may eat the Passover?”
13 He sent two of his disciples, and said to them, “Go into the city, and there you will meet a man carrying a pitcher of water. Follow him,
14 and wherever he enters in, tell the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says, “Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”’
15 He will himself show you a large upper room furnished and ready. Get ready for us there.”
16 His disciples went out, and came into the city, and found things as he had said to them, and they prepared the Passover.
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Luke 22:8
Luke specifying Peter and John as the two disciples sent
8 Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat.”
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Luke 22:24-27
dispute among disciples about who is greatest, Jesus teaching servant leadership
24 There arose also a contention among them, which of them was considered to be greatest.
25 He said to them, “The kings of the nations lord it over them, and those who have authority over them are called ‘benefactors.’
26 But not so with you. But one who is the greater among you, let him become as the younger, and one who is governing, as one who serves.
27 For who is greater, one who sits at the table, or one who serves? Isn’t it he who sits at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.
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John 13:1-5
Jesus washing disciples' feet before the Passover feast
1 Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that his time had come that he would depart from this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
2 During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him,
3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he came from God, and was going to God,
4 arose from supper, and laid aside his outer garments. He took a towel, and wrapped a towel around his waist.
5 Then he poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
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John 13:21-30
Jesus troubled in spirit, revealing betrayer by dipping morsel, giving it to Judas
21 When Jesus had said this, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, “Most certainly I tell you that one of you will betray me.”
22 The disciples looked at one another, perplexed about whom he spoke.
23 One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was at the table, leaning against Jesus’ breast.
24 Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him, and said to him, “Tell us who it is of whom he speaks.”
25 He, leaning back, as he was, on Jesus’ breast, asked him, “Lord, who is it?”
26 Jesus therefore answered, “It is he to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it.” So when he had dipped the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.
27 After the piece of bread, then Satan entered into him. Then Jesus said to him, “What you do, do quickly.”
28 Now no man at the table knew why he said this to him.
29 For some thought, because Judas had the money box, that Jesus said to him, “Buy what things we need for the feast,” or that he should give something to the poor.
30 Therefore having received that morsel, he went out immediately. It was night.
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John 17
Jesus praying for unity among his followers
1 Jesus said these things, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may also glorify you;
2 even as you gave him authority over all flesh, so he will give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
3 This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ.
4 I glorified you on the earth. I have accomplished the work which you have given me to do.
5 Now, Father, glorify me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world existed.
6 I revealed your name to the people whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours, and you have given them to me. They have kept your word.
7 Now they have known that all things whatever you have given me are from you,
8 for the words which you have given me I have given to them, and they received them, and knew for sure that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me.
9 I pray for them. I don’t pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.
10 All things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.
11 I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them through your name which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are.
12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. Those whom you have given me I have kept. None of them is lost, except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
13 But now I come to you, and I say these things in the world, that they may have my joy made full in themselves.
14 I have given them your word. The world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
15 I pray not that you would take them from the world, but that you would keep them from the evil one.
16 They are not of the world even as I am not of the world.
17 Sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth.
18 As you sent me into the world, even so I have sent them into the world.
19 For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.
20 Not for these only do I pray, but for those also who will believe in me through their word,
21 that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that you sent me.
22 The glory which you have given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, even as we are one;
23 I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that you sent me, and loved them, even as you loved me.
24 Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am, that they may see my glory, which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world.
25 Righteous Father, the world hasn’t known you, but I knew you; and these knew that you sent me.
26 I made known to them your name, and will make it known; that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
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John 18:1-3
Jesus and disciples crossing Kidron ravine to the garden, Judas arriving with cohort
1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples over the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, into which he and his disciples entered.
2 Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, for Jesus often met there with his disciples.
3 Judas then, having taken a detachment of soldiers and officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, came there with lanterns, torches, and weapons.
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John 18:12-14
Jesus arrested, bound, led to Annas, Caiaphas's statement about one man dying
12 So the detachment, the commanding officer, and the officers of the Jews, seized Jesus and bound him,
13 and led him to Annas first, for he was father-in-law to Caiaphas, who was high priest that year.
14 Now it was Caiaphas who advised the Jews that it was expedient that one man should perish for the people.
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John 19:17-18
Jesus carrying his cross to the crucifixion
17 He went out, bearing his cross, to the place called “The Place of a Skull”, which is called in Hebrew, “Golgotha”,
18 where they crucified him, and with him two others, on either side one, and Jesus in the middle.
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Isaiah 53:1-12
full reading of the suffering servant passage as prophecy of Christ's death and resurrection
1 Who has believed our message? To whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no good looks or majesty. When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised, and rejected by men; a man of suffering, and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t respect him.
4 Surely he has borne our sickness, and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didn’t open his mouth. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he didn’t open his mouth.
8 He was taken away by oppression and judgment; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living and stricken for the disobedience of my people?
9 They made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death; although he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he will see his offspring. He will prolong his days, and Yahweh’s pleasure will prosper in his hand.
11 After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light and be satisfied. My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself; and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore will I give him a portion with the great, and he will divide the plunder with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death, and was counted with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
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Psalm 22:1-18
Jesus crying out my God my God why have you forsaken me, psalm describing crucifixion details
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning?
2 My God, I cry in the daytime, but you don’t answer; in the night season, and am not silent.
3 But you are holy, you who inhabit the praises of Israel.
4 Our fathers trusted in you. They trusted, and you delivered them.
5 They cried to you, and were delivered. They trusted in you, and were not disappointed.
6 But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised by the people.
7 All those who see me mock me. They insult me with their lips. They shake their heads, saying,
8 “He trusts in Yahweh. Let him deliver him. Let him rescue him, since he delights in him.”
9 But you brought me out of the womb. You made me trust while at my mother’s breasts.
10 I was thrown on you from my mother’s womb. You are my God since my mother bore me.
11 Don’t be far from me, for trouble is near. For there is no one to help.
12 Many bulls have surrounded me. Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me.
13 They open their mouths wide against me, lions tearing prey and roaring.
14 I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax; it is melted within me.
15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have brought me into the dust of death.
16 For dogs have surrounded me. A company of evildoers have enclosed me. They have pierced my hands and feet.
17 I can count all of my bones. They look and stare at me.
18 They divide my garments among them. They cast lots for my clothing.
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Proverbs 22:6
mentioned when pastor accidentally read Psalm 22:6 during a baby dedication
6 Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.
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John 19:28-30
Jesus saying I thirst, receiving sour wine, saying it is finished, giving up his spirit
28 After this, Jesus, seeing that all things were now finished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I am thirsty.”
29 Now a vessel full of vinegar was set there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop, and held it at his mouth.
30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, “It is finished.” He bowed his head, and gave up his spirit.
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John 19:38-42
Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus taking Jesus' body, burying it in the garden tomb
38 After these things, Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked of Pilate that he might take away Jesus’ body. Pilate gave him permission. He came therefore and took away his body.
39 Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred Roman pounds.
40 So they took Jesus’ body, and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury.
41 Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden. In the garden was a new tomb in which no man had ever yet been laid.
42 Then because of the Jews’ Preparation Day (for the tomb was near at hand) they laid Jesus there.
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John 3:16-17
God so loved the world, context of Jesus speaking to Nicodemus
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
17 For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him.
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Pastor Mark walked the congregation through the entire Holy Week chronologically on Resurrection Sunday, using art from the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua and other sources to anchor each day in its historical and scriptural setting. He moved from the raising of Lazarus and the triumphal entry through Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Silent Saturday before arriving at the resurrection, treating Easter not as an isolated event but as the climax of a full week's story.
What was said
Pastor Mark opened by admitting that Easter and Christmas are the hardest Sundays to preach, then committed to walking through the whole week rather than jumping straight to Sunday morning. He used paintings from the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, which he and his wife visited thirty-four years ago, as a kind of visual timeline. The decision to go in order was deliberate: he felt you cannot fully appreciate resurrection Sunday without sitting with what came before it.
Holy Monday and Tuesday showed Jesus cleansing the temple and healing the blind and lame in it. Pastor Mark pointed back to Isaiah, who wrote seven hundred years earlier that God's house would be a house of prayer for all peoples, not only for Israel. The healings were signs the religious leaders had every reason to recognize as messianic, yet instead of believing, the chief priests and scribes became indignant at the children still singing Hosanna.
Wednesday of Holy Week is called Spy Wednesday because the only recorded event is Judas making his deal with the authorities. Pastor Mark noted that Jesus had deliberately kept the location of the Passover meal from Judas, sending Peter and John ahead in a way that had the feel of quiet espionage. Jesus knew his hour had come, and he was moving carefully even as Judas was moving against him.
Maundy Thursday held what Pastor Mark called some of the best lessons in the whole week. The disciples were arguing about which of them was greatest, and Jesus answered by washing their feet, including the feet of Judas. He passed Judas the dipped morsel as a gesture of honor, even knowing what Judas was about to do. The four chapters that follow in John's Gospel, chapters thirteen through sixteen, are Jesus preparing his disciples for life without his physical presence, and chapter seventeen is his prayer that his followers would be unified the way he and the Father are one.
On Good Friday, Pastor Mark read Isaiah 53 in full, pausing on details that mapped precisely onto the crucifixion: pierced hands and feet, garments divided by lot, a grave assigned among the wicked yet a rich man's tomb. He also read from Psalm 22, the thousand-year-old song Jesus quoted from the cross with the words, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" He pointed out that the psalm begins in desolation but moves through remembered faithfulness, and that Jesus, by quoting its opening line, was invoking the whole of it.
From the cross, Pastor Mark lingered on the word tetelestai, translated "It is finished" in John 19. He said he prefers the sense "It has been finished," because the the preacher points to something accomplished at a specific moment with consequences that reach into eternity. He connected that word to a friend in the congregation, Eric Anderson, who has the word tattooed on his arm and who is living with ALS, continuing to tell the story of what Christ finished because he knows his own time is short.
He closed by grounding the resurrection not only in the empty tomb but in the ongoing work of the Spirit. Paul, Peter, and Hebrews all return to resurrection power as the basis for both salvation and sanctified living, Pastor Mark said, and the same Spirit that raised Jesus is at work in His body today. Resurrection Sunday is worth celebrating because everything necessary for salvation has already been accomplished.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Pastor John mentioned that Jesus told his disciples to help unbind Lazarus after raising him, saying 'he puts us together for a reason.' Where in your own life have you seen the church help someone get unbound, and where do you think we still fall short of that?
- The crowd on Palm Sunday got the facts about Jesus right but misunderstood what he came to do. Have you ever found yourself wanting Jesus to show up in a way that fits your expectations rather than his purposes? What did that look like?
and 3 more questions in the guide
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