Group Bible Study

It was Sunday evening, the day of the resurrection of Christ. The weekend had been full of tears, depression, arguing, and controversy. During this dark and confusing time, some unusual things began to happen. It had started that Sunday morning with Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary, the mother of James, claiming that they had gone to Jesus’ tomb and reporting to them that Christ was alive and risen from the grave (Luke 24:4-10). When the testimony of the women came to the disciples, the news was met with skepticism, and some even thought it was nonsense (Luke 24:11), for who had ever conquered death? John and Peter ran to the tomb, but they did not see Jesus; however, they found the burial strips of linen lying in such a way as to convince John that something supernatural had occurred. When they returned to the room where they were hiding from the Romans, and Jewish leaders, the eleven disciples, and others with them were in a state of confusion. How could it be possible for Jesus t...

We are meditating on Jesus, on the day of His resurrection, enjoying the company of two disciples on the road to Emmaus and then going to eat with them. As the Lord gave the blessing over the food, the two disciples recognized that it was Jesus sitting with them and explaining Old Testament Scripture. When their eyes were suddenly opened, Jesus disappeared.  30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them.  31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him,  and he disappeared from their sight.  32 They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?" (Luke 24:30-32) Why would Jesus disappear upon their recognition of Him? One answer is that now the disciples must learn to walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). His disciples had been relying on His visible presence, some of them for three years, but now ...

We are continuing our mediations of Jesus revealing Himself to His disciples the day of His resurrection, specifically looking at the appearance to two disciples on the Emmaus road. As they approached the turnoff for the village where they were going, Jesus made as if to go on further, probably saying goodbye to them. 28 As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther.  29 But they urged him strongly, "Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over." So he went in to stay with them.  30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them.  31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.  32 They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?"  33 They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven ...

We are meditating on the events of the day when Jesus was resurrected. Christ appeared to two despondent disciples on the road to Emmaus, about seven miles west of Jerusalem. They said to Jesus, “but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel” (Luke 24:21). They both talked about their former belief that Christ was the Redeemer of Israel, but their words were in the past tense, revealing that His death on the cross now led them to believe that Jesus was not the Savior. It is interesting to note what the disguised Jesus said to them in reply: 25 He said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!  26 Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?"  27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself (Luke 24:25-27).  These two disciples needed to understand what the Scriptures taught....

We are continuing our meditations on the day of the resurrection of Christ. Luke tells us of two despondent disciples on the road to Emmaus:  13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem.  14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened.  15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them;  16 but they were kept from recognizing him.  17 He asked them, "What are you discussing together as you walk along?" They stood still, their faces downcast.  18 One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, "Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?"  19 "What things?" he asked.  "About Jesus of Nazareth," they replied. "He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people.  20 The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be s...

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift (2 Corinthians 9:15). Joseph and Mary set out for the eighty-mile journey to Bethlehem from Nazareth in Galilee. We like to think that she rode on a donkey, but we have no evidence at all that she rode to Bethlehem. Regardless of the way they traveled, it would have been a dangerous and difficult task for the young couple. Think of what it would have been like for this young teenage girl to carry her baby eighty miles, knowing that she was approaching the baby’s birth and that she would be away from her mother, her friends, and even a midwife. It seems likely that the couple was completely alone when Jesus was born. When she found out that there were no rooms to be had in Bethlehem, what would have been her thoughts toward God? Surely, she would have been puzzled that there was no provision for them. Why didn’t the Lord arrange for a warm room for His Son to be born into the world?  In the plan of God, there should be no voices...

We are continuing today to think about the resurrection of Jesus from death. People come up with all kinds of reasons as to why they won’t believe, but for every skeptic who will reasonably think through the evidence, God has covered all the bases. There are those that say the following: 1)  Jesus didn’t die. He just swooned on the cross, and later in the tomb, he revived and left the tomb.   Answer:  We have evidence from the Roman soldiers who made sure that Jesus was dead by thrusting a spear into his side (John 19:33-35). Out of the side of Christ came a “sudden flow of blood and water.” We know this to be medical evidence of death. The chances that His wounds could have healed up in the tomb to the point where he could remove a one-ton stone outside and then walk the seven miles to Emmaus that afternoon is remote, even if He could have gotten past the guards. That’s without the evidence of the Roman spear thrust into His side (John 19:34). Even if He had survi...

We are continuing our meditations on the resurrection of Christ and what it was like for the disciples that day He arose from the dead. One of the angels at the tomb told the women:  “He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay” (Matthew 28:6). As the women hurried off to tell the disciples the Lord Jesus met them on the way: 8 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples.  9 Suddenly Jesus met them.  “Greetings,”  he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him.  10 Then Jesus said to them,  “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me” (Matthew 28:8-10). Luke tells us that several women reported what had happened to the disciples:  “It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and  the others with them   who told this to the apostles” (Luke 24:10 –emphasis mine). Luke sai...

We are continuing our meditation on the resurrection of Jesus. After visiting the empty tomb and John believing after he saw the empty burial wrappings, Peter and John went back to the house they were staying. Mary Magdalene returned to the tomb (John 20:10) and saw two angels inside the tomb before talking to someone outside that she took to be the gardener.  13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”   14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.  15 He asked her,   “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”  16 Jesus said to her,   “Mary” (John 20:13-16). In talking with the One she thought was the gardener, she wanted to know where the body was taken. Whe...

We are continuing to meditate on the resurrection of Christ. Yesterday, we thought upon the disciples John and Peter running to the tomb after hearing Mary Magdalene's testimony that the stone was rolled away from the tomb. She thought the body of her Lord had been stolen. When John looked into the tomb, we don't know what he saw, but "he saw and believed" (John 20:8). What did John see? Some believe that the Shroud of Turin, a one-piece cloth about fourteen feet long is the burial cloth of Jesus, but the evidence stacks up against it. There are two images on the fabric, one of the front of a person, and one of the rear. The heads of the image meet in the middle, and some have noted that there should be a space between the heads if the cloth was under the body and then laid above. It is also estimated that the head is 5% too large and the nose is disproportionate and the arms too long. Most skeptics believe the shroud to be a painting and a religious hoax. Here...

We are continuing to meditate on the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, and looking today at His resurrection itself. One man, Josh Mc Dowell, tried to disprove the story of the resurrection for his college thesis. As he began to study and write, his careful study of the Scriptures, evidence from history, and his logical reasoning led him to the opposite conclusion — the evidence that he uncovered affected him to his core. He wrote a book called  “Evidence that Demands a Verdict,”  which has become one of the most popular Christian books of our time. It indeed illuminates the whole resurrection story. The climax of this story, i.e., Jesus’ rising from the dead, gives us all a foretaste of the victory we can expect to experience as Christians. Death had no power over Jesus. It will have no power over us.  Having watched where Joseph and Nicodemus put the body, it is likely that the women, having different homes in which they were staying, decided to meet at d...

We are continuing our meditations on the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, focusing today on the burial of Christ. Rich men's tombs were made big enough to stand in, and Matthew adds that a big stone was rolled in front of the entrance. Stones usually weighing a ton or more were chiseled into a coin shape, and a slot cut for the stone to roll in. There is virtually no soil to speak of in Jerusalem so they could not bury Christ in the ground, the hills of Judea are mostly barren limestone rock.  After Christ’s body was placed in the tomb, the priests and elders made a request to Pilate for a guard of Roman soldiers to watch over the tomb. The priests and elders who had conspired to kill Jesus were afraid that some of Christ’s disciples would steal the body and say that He had risen. The Roman soldiers were highly trained and knew that if any of them lost a prisoner it would be at the cost of their lives. In the book of Acts, we read of Peter the Apostle impriso...

Joseph of Arimathea was a secret disciple of Christ. John the Apostle wrote that he kept his beliefs to himself due to his fear of the Jews:  “ Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders”  (John 19:38).  Luke wrote that he was a member of the Sanhedrin, the supreme court of Israel composed of the seventy elders. Luke tells us that Joseph  “had not consented to their decision and action” (Luke 23:51). Upon Christ’s death, Joseph was moved to go to Pilate, the Roman Governor, asking him if he could have the body of Jesus to give Him an honorable burial. Meanwhile, another member of the Sanhedrin, Nicodemus, the principal teacher in Israel, i.e., the one who had come to Jesus at night with questions about how to be born-again (John 3:1-18), had gone to purchase seventy-five pounds of spices to put around the body and fulfill usual burial customs (John 19:39)...

We are continuing our study of the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus and His payment on the cross for the debt of sin we owed. Christ came to be our substitutionary sacrifice. Today, I would like to ask you, how is your debt? Is it gone from you? The Messiah has paid your debt for you, but until you receive the pardon, you are still in your sin. Let me illustrate with a true life story: In the year 1829, a Philadelphia man named George Wilson robbed the U.S. Mail Service, killing someone in the process. Wilson was arrested, brought to trial, found guilty, and sentenced to be hanged. Some friends intervened on his behalf and were finally able to obtain a pardon for him from President Andrew Jackson. But, when he was informed of this, George Wilson refused to accept the pardon! The sheriff was unwilling to enact the sentence—for how could he hang a pardoned man? An appeal was sent to President Jackson. The perplexed President turned to the United States Supreme ...

We are carrying on from our last meditation on the very emotional account of the suffering and death of Jesus and what took place at the cross. At midday, until He gave up His Spirit, darkness came over all the land (Matthew 27:45). Some of the early church fathers wrote about this darkness, that it was not only over the land of Israel but also over the whole world. The early Church father and author, Tertullian, mentioned this event in his  Apologeticum— a defense of Christianity written to unbelievers in the Roman Empire at the time: “At the moment of Christ’s death, the light departed from the sun, and the land was darkened at noonday, which wonder is related in your own annals and is preserved in your archives to this day.” [1] There were some hopeful hearts among those who were watching the crucifixion that death would not occur. It was just unbelievable to those close to Jesus that He could die. They thought that in some miraculous way Christ would down from the cross an...