Group Bible Study

We are continuing to read about the drama of the resurrection of Jesus and how it was perceived by the disciples of Jesus. 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 sentenced to death,...

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. Some 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 Christ's body 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). Also, if He had survived the cross, the three d...

We are continuing our meditation on the resurrection of Jesus. After running to tell the disciples that the body of Jesus was gone from the tomb, Mary Magdalene returned to the tomb and found two angels beside the empty cocoon of the linen wrappings. The angels then asked Mary a question: 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.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”) (John 20:13-16).  Why did Mary not recognize Christ at first? Do you think there have been times when the Lord has come t...

In our short daily meditations, we are looking at John’s testimony of what the resurrection of Christ was like for the followers of Jesus at the time it happened. After John and Peter ran to the tomb, Mary was possibly exhausted after running, and she may even have gone to others with the news as well. When she caught her breath, she hurried back to the tomb, trying to make sense of what was happening. If Mary heard the angel tell the good news of Jesus' being alive, she certainly did not understand it. John and Peter had already left when she got back to the tomb:  10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.  11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb  12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot (John 20:10-12). Many of us have heard the resurrection account so many times that it has become very familiar to us. We find it hard to im...

We are continuing our meditation on the resurrection of Jesus. On Saturday night as the sun was down and the first two stars appeared in the sky, the Sabbath was over. Mark records that, as soon as darkness fell, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices to anoint further Jesus’ body (Mark 16:1). Since it was too dark to do anything that night, they decided to go together the next morning, Sunday. Luke tells us that the women watched where Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had buried Jesus (Luke 23:55), no doubt with many tears. John and Luke both wrote that the women started for the tomb very early while it was still dark (John 20:1; Luke 24:1), and only on the way did they consider the difficulties of getting into the tomb and moving the one-ton door:  “They asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” (Mark 16:3). Love never considers difficulties. Their only thought was to honor and express their love of...

We are continuing to meditate on the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, and looking today at the 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 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 dawn...

After Christ’s body was placed in the tomb, the Jewish priests and elders then went and made a request to Pilate for a guard of Roman soldiers to watch over the tomb. They were afraid that some of Christ’s disciples would steal the body and say that He had risen. Roman soldiers would make sure the disciples would not steal the body. So that no chance of deception would take place, a seal was placed on the stone (Matthew 27:60-66). Scripture tells us much detail about His burial because God knows there will always be those who will doubt the event of the resurrection ever took place. The question arises, why did the Jewish leaders request that Pilate order Roman guards placed around the tomb rather than their own men? The Jewish leaders knew that many in Jerusalem were followers of Christ. They possibly thought the Roman soldiers were not so influenced by Christ and the leaders could trust them to guard the tomb more safely. The Roman soldiers had been highly trained; they knew i...

The New Testament tells us of several secret believers at the time of Christ. It was two believers of the Sanhedrin that placed Jesus in the tomb. 50 Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man,  51 who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea and he was waiting for the kingdom of God.  52 Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus' body.  53 Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid.  54 It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.  55 The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it.  56 Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment (Luke 23:50-56). Joseph of Arimathea was a secret disciple of Christ. John the Apostle wrote that he kep...

The first supernatural event was that darkness came over all the land from the sixth hour (noon) to the ninth hour, 3 pm (Matthew 27:45). Passover always occurred on a full moon, so a solar eclipse was out of the question during a full moon, and even if it could, an eclipse cannot last for three hours. This darkening of the sun was a sign of judgment and divine displeasure at what took place at Calvary. Jesus was bearing the wrath of God on sin during those three crucial hours. That was why Jesus spoke the words, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me." Some commentators believe the darkening of the sun was sent to cover the nakedness and sufferings of Christ.   The second supernatural happening was that of a great earthquake, with the tombs opening and dead people coming to life:   51 At that moment the curtain of the temple   was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split   52 and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many h...

6) “It is finished” (John 19:30).  We are meditating on the seven last sayings of Jesus while He was on the cross, bearing the sin of all men (Scroll down for the fourth and fifth saying). After Jesus' lips were moistened with the sponge on the hyssop, He gathered strength to push on the  sedile , the piece of wood that prolonged the agony of the cross by enabling him to fill his lungs with air again. It was three in the afternoon, the time in the temple where the Passover lambs were being sacrificed for the Passover meal that night. The three synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), tell us that Jesus shouted out loudly, but they do not tell us what He shouted. Jesus pushed Himself up one more time, filling His lungs with air and shouted out for the entire world to hear, "It is finished!" John gives us the one word in the Greek language,  tetelestai . It is translated into English as  it is finished . This expression was not a shout of weariness, but a shout o...

We continue our meditation on the last seven sayings of Christ while His life was slowly ebbing away on the cross.  4) The fourth saying Jesus spoke was,  "'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?' - which means, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"'  (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34). The question arises, if Jesus had never sinned as the Scriptures teach, and that He was totally pure and innocent of all charges of blasphemy brought against Him, why would Christ feel forsaken of God near the hour of His death? Speaking about God giving the Lord Jesus to be our substitutionary sacrifice, Paul wrote to the church at Corinth,  “He made Him who knew no sin  to be sin on our behalf , that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).  Just as the high priest, on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16), laid his hands on a sacrificial animal to make atonement for sin, praying the transference of the sins of the nation to the animal, so now ...

We are meditating day by day on the drama that took place at the crucifixion of Christ, specifically on the seven last sayings of Jesus while He hung on the cross (Scroll down for earlier meditations). The third thing Christ said was to His mother and John, the apostle. "He said to His mother, 'Woman, behold your son!' Then He said to the disciple, 'Behold your mother!'" (John 19:26-27).  His mother, Mary, was broken-hearted as she looked up at Jesus. John the apostle was also near. We don’t hear of Joseph, Mary’s husband, being around during Jesus’ ministry, so he had died at some point. By the time of Christ's crucifixion, she was probably in her late 40s or early 50s, and as far as we know, had no visible means of support. The Scriptures speak of honoring one’s parents (Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16), so Jesus, being the firstborn of the family, did not pass on responsibility to His half-brothers. He asked John, the disciple whom He loved, ...