Unlocked: Daily Devotions for Teens

Dining with Strangers

READ: LUKE 22:19; 24:13-36 [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=LUKE%2022%3A19%3B%2024%3A13-36&version=CSB] The mall food courts in Guatemala City are very different than those I visited in the US. When I came back from four years away from my country, one of the first outings we had was to the mall. Mall runs and window-shopping are common practices among most city folk in Guatemala. We especially like doing this on Sunday afternoons. Food courts get packed—to the point that families usually have to split up to find a spot to eat. It’s crazy, and I bet many of you reading this are already cringing at the thought. The layout of these food courts is pretty interesting. Tables are all touching each other, basically creating twenty-person tables. There is no room to separate them, so—whether you like it or not—you usually eat lunch with strangers. And that brings us to today’s Bible passage. Shortly after Jesus’s resurrection, He appeared to two of His disciples, walking along the road to Emmaus with them. But Luke 24:16 says, “they were prevented from recognizing him.” Even though Jesus was an apparent stranger to these disciples, they still invited Him over for dinner. Jesus accepted and ate with them. And He broke the bread—just as He had done on the night before He went to the cross! When that happened, the disciples’ “eyes were opened, and they recognized him”—and then He vanished (verse 31). Is it too bold to say that maybe by having lunch with strangers—even at such a common place as a food court—we might be dining with Jesus, welcoming Him to have lunch with us? Is it even crazier to think that when others are hosts to us we might recognize Jesus in them? Hospitality is an opportunity to show and remember Jesus’s love and His presence with us. It’s a chance to recognize and proclaim that Jesus came to dwell with us even when we were estranged from Him (Matthew 1:23; John 1:14; Romans 5:8; Colossians 1:21-22). • Andres López • Can you think of a time you felt welcomed by others? What was that like? • As Christians, how can we (safely) welcome the stranger among us into our lives? • How might God be inviting you to reach out to the outcasts in your school, church, neighborhood, etc.? Consider taking a moment to talk to Jesus about this. Additionally, who is a trusted Christian adult—such as a parent, pastor, or youth leader—you can talk to about what practicing hospitality could look like in your life? (Matthew 25:34-40; Hebrews 13:1-3) Therefore welcome one another, just as Christ also welcomed you, to the glory of God. Romans 15:7 (CSB)

A Doubter and a Lover

READ: JOHN 20:24-31; 1 PETER 1:8 [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=JOHN%2020%3A24-31%3B%201%20PETER%201%3A8&version=CSB] I’m just gonna say it—I think Thomas the disciple, commonly known as “Doubting Thomas,” gets a bad rap. When the other disciples witnessed the risen Christ, Thomas was absent. Thomas said he wanted visible, tangible proof of Jesus’s resurrection, saying, “If I don’t see the mark of the nails in his hands…and put my hand into his side, I will never believe” (John 20:25). It’s easy to criticize Thomas for his unbelief, but I’m not sure I would be any better. Would I take the word of the other eleven disciples? Would I really believe that Jesus had risen from the dead? Thomas loved Jesus deeply. So fervent was his love for the Savior that in John 11:16 he was willing to follow Jesus into possible death when Jesus wanted to go to Bethany. Perhaps Thomas wanted evidence of the risen Christ, not because he was apathetic, but because he felt the intense hurt when Jesus died. Death is painful, separating loved ones and drawing us into profound grief. Even Jesus wept at the grave of his friend Lazarus (John 11:35). Death is unnatural, a consequence of the curse of sin. Yet Jesus has overcome the power of sin through His death— and overcome the power of death through His resurrection. The good news is, the story doesn’t end with Thomas’s doubt. A week after Thomas’s statement of unbelief, Jesus reappeared in the upper room where the disciples had gathered behind locked doors. Jesus confronted Thomas and invited him to touch His hands and His side—to touch the very wounds Thomas had said he needed to see. Thomas immediately believed, exclaiming, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:27-28). In fact, church tradition says Thomas spent the rest of his life as a missionary and died at the point of a spear. He devoted his life to sharing the good news of the resurrection with those who had not seen the risen Christ in person. Thomas may have doubted in the upper room, but Jesus wasn’t finished working in his life. • Mike Hurley • Do you think “Doubting Thomas” is an accurate label? • Even people who have been walking with Jesus for decades still wrestle with doubt from time to time. Thankfully, Jesus responds to us like He responded to Thomas—not shying away from our questions and hurts, but coming near. Jesus invites us to tell Him all our questions, frustrations, and fears—and also to share these with trusted Christians who can show us His love, pray with us and for us, and help us dig into His Word. What doubts have been weighing on you? But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. John 20:31 (CSB)

Did Jesus Really Rise from the Dead?

READ: 1 CORINTHIANS 15:3-20 [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20CORINTHIANS%2015%3A3-20&version=NLT] In 1 Corinthians 15:17, Paul writes that if Jesus Christ has not been raised from the dead, then our faith is worthless because we are still in our sins. Jesus’s victory over the grave is what secures forgiveness for our sins and guarantees that we will have eternal life with Him. So how can we be certain that Jesus rose from the dead? Here is some of the best evidence for the resurrection: Jesus’s followers died for Him. After Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, His followers continued to proclaim His resurrection, even in the face of immense persecution and suffering. Church tradition tells us that most of these followers were even killed for what they were proclaiming. Would you suffer and give your life for a lie? How likely do you think it is that multiple people would all suffer and die for the same lie? Hard-to-convince people were convinced. According to biblical records, people like James (the half-brother of Jesus) and Saul of Tarsus were hard-core skeptics, and in Saul’s case, persecutors of the church. Only the resurrection explains their sudden change of heart, which led them to become leaders of the church. If the resurrection was a lie, the disciples did a terrible job. Several details in the resurrection story would be different if the disciples were trying to invent a believable story. For example, they would not have included shameful information about themselves—like abandoning and denying Jesus at His trial. They would not have shared that women found the tomb empty first—because women in the first century were not considered credible witnesses. They would have removed the part about Jesus’s suffering as He awaited His betrayal in the garden of Gethsemane—to make Him more appealing to a culture that valued strength. The Christian faith hinges on the resurrection. Thankfully, we have every reason to be confident in the reliability of the eyewitness accounts of the resurrection that we have recorded in Scripture today. • Jonathon Fuller • Why is it important that Jesus actually rose from the dead, and that eye-witness accounts of His resurrection are recorded in the Bible? • What questions do you have about the resurrection? Who are trusted Christians in your life who could help you look into these? But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died. 1 Corinthians 15:20 (NLT)

Easter Pie

READ: ISAIAH 53:1-5; 2 CORINTHIANS 4:8-18; 1 PETER 5:6-11 [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ISAIAH%2053%3A1-5%3B%202%20CORINTHIANS%204%3A8-18%3B%201%20PETER%205%3A6-11&version=NLT] The pastor spoke through the laptop sitting on a TV tray in my living room. It wasn’t the typical way I spent Easter Sunday. I took a few steps and opened the blinds, mimicking how the shades opened during service at my home church. My mom laughed, and I returned to the couch to listen to the Easter message. Several days earlier, I had an ovarian cyst the size of a grapefruit removed from my abdomen. The sixty days before the surgery had been filled with confusion, anguish, and debilitating pain. Unsure of the root cause at first, I spent weeks scheduling tests with doctors until the cyst was finally found. Even after the doctors found the cyst, I had to wait another month for the surgery. That month was one of the hardest months of my life. Chronic pain and fatigue, while trying to teach a class full of rambunctious first graders, made me question why God was allowing this in my life. Those sixty days were hard, but through them, I came to feel closer to God. The nights when I had pain so severe I thought it might burst through my body, I called out to God, and He sustained me. When I wasn’t sure how I would endure, I clung to His promises, and He came through. That Easter was different than any other Easter, but it was also the rawest example of the Easter message in my life. My body had felt dead, consumed in pain and anguish, but through the hands of skilled doctors, God had raised my body back to life. Later that day, my mom drove us to a nearby restaurant. It was a huge accomplishment to get dressed, climb into a car, and sit in a booth. My broken body was being restored. Easter pie never tasted so sweet. • Jenna Brooke Carlson • On Easter Sunday, we celebrate that Jesus rose from the dead! Through His death and resurrection, He made the way for us to be restored to relationship with God—and for all of creation to be made new one day when Jesus returns. As we wait for this glorious day, we have the incredible blessings of Jesus’s presence with us every moment, and the many ways He shows us His care and healing. Yet we also long for renewal that isn’t here yet. Can you think of a time you felt broken? Were there any ways you noticed God caring for you? • Where are you still waiting for God’s renewal? Consider taking a moment to talk to Him about this. But those who die in the Lord will live; their bodies will rise again! Those who sleep in the earth will rise up and sing for joy! For your life-giving light will fall like dew on your people in the place of the dead! Isaiah 26:19 (NLT)

Does Jesus Know My Pain?

READ: ISAIAH 52:13–53:12; JOHN 16:33; HEBREWS 4:14-16 [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ISAIAH%2052%3A13%E2%80%9353%3A12%3B%20JOHN%2016%3A33%3B%20HEBREWS%204%3A14-16&version=NLT] Long before Jesus was born, many prophets foretold His coming. Isaiah was one of these prophets. And his words (found in the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament) use powerful imagery to convey God’s glorious redemption story. Isaiah had a lot of incredible things to say about Jesus, even before He was born. One of Isaiah’s most gripping word-picture passages is Isaiah 52:13–53:12. Earlier in the book of Isaiah, we learn of Jesus’s power and divinity (9:6-7). But here, we understand His relatable, humbling humanity. Jesus knows our pain— He was not particularly attractive, He knew suffering and sadness, and He was despised by many (53:2-3). Jesus loves us so much that He willingly took on this pain and affliction, and He suffered to the point of death on the cross. For you and me. We praise Him because through His death and resurrection He has overcome the pains and sins of this world! He offers us new life in Himself— forgiving our sins, saving us from death, and healing all our hurts (53:5). No matter what you’re going through, you can trust that Jesus loves you, and He understands your pain to the fullest. He knows grief. He knows what it feels like to be unpopular and rejected by people. He knows abandonment. He even knows death. He didn’t have to experience these painful things, but He chose to enter into our suffering in order to heal us. Jesus knows your pain and loves you immensely, which is why He died for you. He came to heal you from the sin and pain of this world and to bring you into a right relationship with Himself. You can always bring your pain to Him because He understands, and He cares. • Rachel Wierenga • Consider reading Isaiah 52:13–53:12 slowly. What phrases stick out to you the most? How do these make you feel—curious, confused, sad, thankful, frustrated, peaceful, or something else? • What sort of pain are you experiencing today? It might be physical, emotional, mental, relational, or spiritual. Consider taking a moment to tell Jesus about your pain. You can be totally honest with Him. He truly knows what you’re going through, and He weeps with you. • When Jesus returns and raises all His people from the dead, we will have resurrected bodies and live harmoniously together in restored creation! Revelation 21:4 says, “There will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain.” How can this eternal future give us hope for today? But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. Isaiah 53:5 (NLT)