The House You're Building

        Orient  John 20:1-31 Chapter 20 describes the Resurrection of Christ and His disciples’ reactions to seeing the empty tomb.  Mary Magdalene, Peter, and John are featured characters.  Jesus then makes several appearances, first to Mary, then a group of disciples, then the group again with Thomas present, who had previously doubted His return.  The end of the chapter contains the anchor to the book, where John restates his author’s purpose to believe in Jesus to experience life.     Introduction I can’t believe my eyes  is a well-known idiom meaning something is shocking or incredulous.  This expression is declared when one finds it hard to believe what your senses are telling you is true.  All the followers of Christ had this reaction upon seeing evidence of His resurrection.  Initially, as grave robbery was common, Mary saw the empty grave and ran to get help.  When...

Orient  John 11:1-57 Today’s narrative highlights Jesus healing of a dear friend, not a stranger.     What makes this story unique is that Jesus intentionally allows His friend Lazarus to die so He could show His resurrection power.     Previous in John, Jesus has stated that some suffering is allowed to glorify God, which seems to be the case here.     Themes from chapter nine emerge again using day as a symbol of the opportunity to do the work of God and the looming threat of death as Jesus returns to Jerusalem.     Highlighted in this section is the emotion and intention of God regarding His intervention in the events in our lives as well as the response of the people we see to this great miracle of resurrection.     At the end, we read about a prophecy from the high priest regarding the sufficiency of the pending sacrifice of Jesus for His people. This chapter ends the first major section of John, where signs are used to validat...

1 Corinthians 15:12-19 says Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied .     But take heart because He has been raised and our faith is not in vain.   It is true and Jesus says in verse 29 that those who believe in Him are blessed.     Read c...