What Jesus Did

Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. "Dear woman, why are you crying?" the angels asked her. "Because they have taken away my Lord," she replied, "and I don't know where they have put him."

—John 20:11-13 NLT

Key Thought


What would make you surrender your faith in Jesus as Lord? One of...

 

[For until John and Peter saw the empty tomb,] they still hadn't understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead. Then they went home.

—John 20:9-10 NLT

Key Thought


John and Peter have made the most amazing discovery in the history of the universe, and what did they do? They went home! They went home? Why didn't they go out into the streets of Jerusalem and shout the news? Why didn't they tell everyone within earshot that Jesus was alive again...

 

Peter and the other disciple started out for [Jesus'] tomb. They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn't go in. Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, while the cloth that had covered Jesus' head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings. Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in...

 

Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to [Jesus'] tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, "They have taken the Lord's body out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!"

—John 20:1-2 NLT

Key Thought


Ever have one of those Sunday's when you didn't feel like doing the "church thing" or facing the...

 

The place of crucifixion was near a garden, where there was a new tomb, never used before. And so, because it was the day of preparation for the Jewish Passover and since the tomb was close at hand, [Joseph and Nicodemus] laid Jesus there.

—John 19:41-42 NLT

Key Thought


There are few things harder than leaving the bodies of loved ones at their graves. Walking away leaves such a sense of finality and loss. Can you imagine the heartbreak of Joseph and Nicodemus as...

 

Afterward Joseph of Arimathea, who had been a secret disciple of Jesus (because he feared the Jewish leaders), asked Pilate for permission to take down Jesus' body. When Pilate gave permission, Joseph came and took the body away. With him came Nicodemus, the man who had come to Jesus at night. He brought about seventy-five pounds of perfumed ointment made from myrrh and aloes. Following Jewish burial custom, they wrapped Jesus' body with the spices in long sheets of linen cloth.

—John...

 

Afterward Joseph of Arimathea, who had been a secret disciple of Jesus (because he feared the Jewish leaders), asked Pilate for permission to take down Jesus' body. When Pilate gave permission, Joseph came and took the body away.

—John 19:38 NLT

Key Thought


Fear has incredible power over us. Fear can paralyze us into inaction. Fear can make us uncertain about what steps to take. Fear can make us pull away from a friendship. Fear has incredible power to destroy our...

 

(This report is from an eyewitness giving an accurate account. He speaks the truth so that you also may continue to believe.) These things happened in fulfillment of the Scriptures that say, "Not one of his bones will be broken," and "They will look on the one they pierced."

—John 19:35-37 NLT

Key Thought


Our faith is built on the eyewitness accounts of those who saw Jesus daily and told his story at great personal cost. Our faith is built on the trustworthiness of God...

 

It was the day of preparation, and the Jewish leaders didn't want the bodies hanging [on the crosses] the next day, which was the Sabbath ... So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the two men crucified with Jesus. But when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead, so they didn't break his legs. One of the soldiers, however, pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out.

—John 19:31-34 NLT

Key Thought


John, the writer...

 

It was the day of preparation, and the Jewish leaders didn't want the bodies hanging [on the crosses] the next day, which was the Sabbath (and a very special Sabbath, because it was Passover week). So they asked Pilate to hasten their deaths by ordering that their legs be broken. Then their bodies could be taken down.

—John 19:31 NLT

Key Thought


Have you ever caught yourself doing something awful and wrong just so you could carry out your sense of religious...