The Gospel of John

Jesus
Jesus was born approximately 5 B.C. in the town of Bethlehem, Israel, to a virgin named Mary, who was descended from King David. Raised in Nazareth by Mary and her husband, Joseph, Jesus lived the ordinary life of a carpenter's son. Those who knew him didn't yet know that he was also God's Son. At age 30, Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and tempted by the devil into the desert. He then began healing, teaching and performing miracles throughout Judea. He called people to believe in him as the only way to God.

Body
Our bodies are temporarily housing our personalities and souls. They are mortal containers of the immortal. The body is an amazing machine; the brain itself astounds modern scientists. Every part and every cell of the body performs a necessary function, each system interacting with the others.

God uses our bodies as an example of how all Christians should interact. He calls us the "body of Christ." God created each of us with a unique personality, background and set of skills to perform a unique role for him. In fact, he has already prepared good works for each of us to do (see Ephesians 2:10). Yet God wants us to work together for the benefit of the entire "body", of which Jesus Christ is the head (see Ephesians 4:15-16).

Crucify
Romans executed slaves and foreigners by terrifying means of crucifixion. Crucify comes from the Latin word for cross, crux, a device of torture. A cross was made up of a post with a slot carved out for a crossbar. Crucifixion, as practiced by the Romans, involved nailing or tying the prisoner's arms to the crossbar, which the executioners then attached to the post. They forced the dangling prisoner to turn his legs to the side, knees bent up, so they could drive a spike through both ankles into the post. The weight of the prisoner's otherwise unsupported body made breathing almost impossible and his chest sagged down on his diaphragm. To inhale, he had to push up and off the spike, putting terrible pressure on his shattered ankles, or he could pull himself up by his nailed wrists. Death was gruesome, slow and inevitable. Jesus was executed on a cross; dying on behalf of all the people.

Darkness
Getting up in the middle of the night for a drink of water can be a frightening experience - especially after watching a scary movie. Darkness causes fear - whether or not we're willing to admit it.

God compares life without Jesus Christ to living in the darkness. It's a world without light, without understanding, without joy. Yet we're told that although Christ came to bring salvation to everyone, some prefer to reject Christ and live in spiritual darkness.

Disciples
Does disciple sound uncomfortably like "discipline"? It is. A disciple is a person who adheres to the teaching of another - not just believing a certain philosophy, but also applying it to his or her life.

Night
Night is more than just the time period that begins at sundown and ends at sunrise. Unlike the day, night is typified by darkness and filled with unseen obstacles and dangers. The night offers cover for sinful people to undertake selfish pursuits, and it provides challenges for the believer when we sense the "night" in our society. The Lord Jesus will return like "a thief in the night" (1 Thessalonians 5:2) - when we least expect him and whether we're ready or not.

There are many great stories in the Bible that occurred during the night: During the night of Passover, the Lord struck down every firstborn son of the Egyptians. The Israelites followed a pillar of fire when they traveled by night during the exodus. Under cover of night, Gideon and an army of Midianites. Torches lit the night when Jesus was betrayed in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Peter
When Jesus gave a fisherman named Simon Peter the opportunity to become a "fisher of men," this man left everything to follow Jesus. It was the beginning of a lifelong mission.

Simon Peter was an amazing man of God. One minute we admire him, and the next minute we cringe because he's stuck his foot in his mouth again. One minute our hearts cry out to be like him, and the next minute we're relieved that we're not like him. Peter seemed to operate in extremes, yet God wa preparing him for something very special.

Simon
Five significant men in Jesus' life shared the name Simon, but they were as different from each other as they could be. (1) Simon the fisherman was a disciple of Jesus. God change his name to Peter (see Peter) because of the part he would playing the the church. (2) Jesus' other disciple named Simon was called Simon the Zealot. He was a man of intense political and religious convictions. (3) One of Jesus' half brothers, a son of Mary and Joseph, was also named Simon. (4) A leper named Simon opened his home to Jesus, perhaps after being cured by him. He was shocked at the woman who came to anoint Jesus with her tears, and he received a lesson on the connection between forgiveness and love. (5) Another Simon, originally from Cyrene, was in Jerusalem one day. Soldiers ordered him to carry the cross for the exhausted and bleeding Jesus. All these men knew Jesus - each in a profound way. Their names may not have all been changed, but after meeting Jesus, their hearts were never the same again.

Lying
Remember Pinocchio, the wooden puppet who longed to become a real boy? Though he tried so hard to become human, his habit of lying kept getting in the way. In the Christian life, sins such as lying often interfere with a good relationship with God. While we may not take lying seriously, it is a sign of a depraved, or corrupt life without Christ. When we purposely deceive people, we change our allegiance from God to Satan, who is called the "father of lies" (John 8:44).

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Look
Looking something over is a way of understanding it to a fuller extent. No one knows us more completely than God, who thoroughly examines our actions. Since he is perfect, only he can judge what things are truly done for him and what things are misdirected attentions.

Mary
In the New Testament, the name Mary is just about as common as the names John and Amy are today. There are three notable Mary's in the Bible, all of whom were dedicated to Jesus Christ and recognized that he was God. These three women also modeled lives of faith. the first Mary we encounter is Jesus' mother. A virgin, she was chosen by God to have a child-Jesus-through the Holy Spirit. When an angel told her of her pregnancy, she replied, "I am the Lord's servant...may it be to me as you have said" (Luke 2:38). Later, Mary became one of Jesus' followers and was part of the group who received the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.

Nicodemus
Nicodemus wanted to know who Jesus Christ was. As a Pharisee and ruler, he had a lot to risk by associating with Jesus, so he came to Jesus one night under the cover of darkness to find out about him. Jesus didn't waste any time. He immediately began teaching Nicodemus God's plan for eternal life.

How did Nicodemus respond? We don't know. But we do know that Nicodemus was on the scene to help with Jesus' burial when all his other followers were in hiding. The Bible says he supplied 75 pounds of burial spices - enough for a royal funeral!

Preparation
Whether it's surviving an earthquake or teaching kindergartners, advance readiness is the key to success. The Bible talks about being prepared for everything from making a meal to fighting a war. Sometimes being prepared meant getting ready for a big feast or a celebration, which was mainly an outward experience. At other times being prepared meant readying one's inward state, especially when it was in preparation for meeting with God. In the Old Testament, there were long lists of intricate instructions on how to prepare for events, especially for special feasts like passover (see Passover) and for the animal sacrifices and offerings that the people would perform to honor God.

Stone
What are the two most famous stones in the Bible? The first is the small, smooth stone that 14-year-old David put into his slingshot. With it, God allowed him to defeat Israel's enemy by killing the Philistine bully Goliath ( 1 Samuel 17:48-49). The second is the large stone that the Roman soldiers rolled across the door of Jesus' tomb to make sure the body would remain there. It didn't work; Jesus rose from the grave anyway and defeated death, humankind's enemy.

Tradition
"Tra-di-tion!" The image of Tevye, the Russian Jew, striding about his hometown in Fiddler on the Roof and singing the glories of tradition summons up ideas of noble heritage and and cultural history. Many of us come from families rich with meaningful traditions. God himself prescribed numerous traditions in the Old Testament for the Israelites to observe throughout the year. But the Bible warns against elevating traditions above the truths (see Truth) that they were given to reinforce.

Run
The German movie Run, Lola, Run depicts the fast-paced efforts of Lola, who has 20 minutes to cross Berlin and raise DM 100,000 before the mob snuffs out her boyfriend. Its is with similar intensity and determination that we are to live the Christian life. In the book of 1 Corinthians, Paul compares Christians to runners to illustrate the discipline necessary for both lifestyles.

39. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. 40. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. 41. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid.
42. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

CHAPTER TWENTY

The Empty Tomb

1. Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary of Magdala went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” 3. So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter, and reached the tomb first. 5. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in.

Jesus' resurrection appearances

Event	Place	Day of the Week	Matthew	Mark	Luke	John	Acts	1Cor
The empty tomb	Jerusalem	Resurrection Sunday	28:1-8	16:1-8	24:1-12	20:1-10
To Mary Magdalene in the garden	Jerusalem	Resurrection Sunday		16:9-11		20:11-18
To other women	Jerusalem	Resurrection Sunday	28:9-10
To two people going to Emmaus	Road to Emmaus	Resurrection Sunday		16:12-13	24:13-32
To Peter	Jerusalem	Resurrection Sunday			24:24			15:5
To the ten disciples in the upper room	Jerusalem	Resurrection Sunday			24:36-43	20:19-25
To the eleven disciples in the upper room	Jerusalem	Following Sunday		16:14		10:26-31		15:5
To seven disciples fishing	Sea of Galilee	Some time later				21:1-14
To the eleven disciples on a mountain	Galilee	Some time later	28:16-20	16:15-18
To more than five hundred	Unknown	Some time later						15:6
To James	Unknown	Some time later						15:7
To the disciples at Jesus' ascension	Mount of Olives	Forty days after Jesus' resurrection			24:44-49		1:3-9
To Paul	Damascus	Several years later					9:1-19 22:3-16 26:9-18	9:1

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THE STARTING POINT STUDY BIBILE New International Version
The Luis Palau Evangelistic Association / www.luispalau.org