In today’s passage, we are continuing to look at the first day of Christ’s resurrection from the dead.  He arose early in the morning on the first day of the week, which is, of course, Sunday.  In the preceding verses we saw Mary Magdalene and John and Peter’s response to the resurrection.  But in presenting the chronology of the events on this most important of days, John does so in such a way as to teach a lesson.  He is teaching, in this last section of chapter 20, the gospel, and he does so by showcasing for us the first

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Secret Disciples, John 19:38-42                                                                 Psalm 56 We live in a culture today when death is portrayed in movies and television with all sorts of blood and gore and people are unmoved by it.  But on the other hand, in reality, in our day to day lives, we go to great lengths to avoid seeing death.  If the average person even saw a steer killed and butchered they would

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For most Christians, the events surrounding the crucifixion of Christ are very familiar.  We’ve all probably heard many messages on the crucifixion and even possibly seen movies or plays depicting it.  Not to mention, there are four gospel accounts of the crucifixion in the New Testament.  However, not all the gospels recount the exact same details.  One gospel might include some things which others leave out.  In John’s gospel, he includes some details which others have not, and also, he has left out some events that others included.  So the tendency among preachers and expositors preaching on this text is

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In the last few weeks we have been looking at the various aspects of apostasy as a contrast to believing the truth.  Apostasy, as you know, is the act of turning away from the truth.  We started out examining the apostasy of the church in the example of the disciples at the arrest of Jesus.  Peter’s denial of Christ exemplified the apostasy of the church. Then last week we looked at the apostasy of the world, particularly as evidenced by religion and politics.  The Jewish religious leaders under Annas exemplified apostate religion, and Pilate illustrated apostasy in politics. Today we

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As I have previously pointed out, John isn’t presenting a blow by blow account of the arrest and trial of Christ.  By the time he is writing this epistle, the other three gospels have already presented all of the chronological events in detail.  Instead, what John is doing is specifically highlighting certain events in order to illustrate particular principles which he is attempting to teach.  And as we have seen from our previous studies, John is very focused on presenting the gospel as the truth of God.  He quotes Jesus reaffirming this principle again and again in statements such as

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My message today is titled, “Fight or Flight.” And I hope that the reason for that title would be evident from the content of the verses we just read.  We know from this text and the other gospels that all the disciples fled as a result of this incident, and also we see Simon Peter trying to put up a fight by taking out his sword and cutting of the ear of the high priest’s servant. That’s the basis for calling it, Fight or Flight.   The medical professionals tell us that fight or flight is associated with a physiological

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For the last few weeks we have been studying the prayer of Jesus on the night before His crucifixion.  And as we have noted, there are three sections to His prayer; He prays first for Himself, then for His disciples, and then for those who will be saved in the future (that is the church at large).  But in addition to that purpose, there is an underlying application to His prayer, which is not only for our edification, but for our education.  We can learn from Christ how to pray effectively in a way that is acceptable to God, and

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Last week we began to look at what is the longest prayer of Christ that is recorded, and perhaps the most instructive of His prayers.  It is exemplary from many different perspectives.  The prayer can be broken down into three main sections; vs1-5 Jesus prays concerning Himself, vs 6-19 Jesus prays concerning the disciples, and vs20 -26 Jesus prays concerning the church.  Now as we saw last time, one of those perspectives is that Christ’s prayer teaches us to pray. His prayer as recorded in the first five verses is an example of effective prayer, prayer that is acceptable to

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Once we are born again, we are converted, become a new creation in Christ Jesus, it is necessary that we grow in our new life, mature to the full stature of Christ Jesus.  And to that end, if I had to make a recommendation for a spiritual goal that you could make which would have the greatest possible impact in your life, not only for yourself, but also on your church, your family, friends and coworkers, I would suggest that you resolve to be a better man or woman of prayer.  That doesn’t mean that I think reading your Bible

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