Welcome to Week Six of Pursuing God’s Beauty: Stories from the Gospel of John. This summer, we’re digging deep into God’s Word and praying that with a word, passage, or story we will be wonderstruck by Scripture and fall in love with the Bible once again, or maybe for the first time.
Here are four things you will want to know before diving into John 20-21:
1. Stealing a body was considered a horrible offense in Jewish culture. Emperor Claudius eventually made grave robbing a capital crime punishable by death.
2. A woman’s testimony was not considered evidence in court. Only men’s testimonies were considered reliable. Jesus tells Mary—a woman who’s testimony wouldn’t count—to go tell the disciples of Jesus’ resurrection. The very first evangelist of the risen Christ is a woman! [Tweet this] John’s Gospel continually esteems women and the role they play as children of God.
3. John doesn’t use the noun faith (Greek: pistis) in his Gospel, but uses the verb, to believe (Greek: pisteuo) almost one hundred times. John’s Gospel remains focused on inviting readers to believe in Jesus. [Tweet this]
4. There are multiple words for “love” in Greek—two of which are agape and phileo. Agape expresses an unconditional, sacrificial love (like that of Christ for us). Phileo is a friendship-type love (think Phil-adelphia: city of brotherly love). [Tweet this] It’s impossible to distinguish in English, but Jesus and Peter exchange these two uses for love in John 21.
Here’s the homework for Week Six: The Hope and Healing of Resurrection:
- Watch Session Six (The Hope and Healing of Resurrection) on Your Pursuing God’s Beauty DVD (16 minutes) and begin working through the homework.
- Read John 20-21.
- Come back to MargaretFeinberg.com on Thursday, the same day you can enjoy the Midday Connection podcast on the session, to discuss what God’s revealing to you along the way. (To subscribe to the RSS feed so you don’t miss a beat, click here).
If you have a blog, consider linking up with MargaretFeinberg.com on Thursday and share what God is teaching you through the Gospel of John!
FOR DISCUSSION: Answer the following question as a comment to this blog post. Feel free to ask questions, reply to others’ comments, and post prayer requests.
- Thomas spent years with Jesus witnessing miracles and listening to teaching, yet he refuses to believe. What are some things about God that are still hard for you to wrap your mind around?
Click here to download 20 Must-Read Passages from John’s Gospel Free PDF Download
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Want to catch up on the online #SummerBibleStudy at MargaretFeinberg.com? Here are the links to the Pursuing God’s Beauty: Stories from the Gospel of John Online Bible Study Posts:
Session One: MONDAY | THURSDAY
Session Two: MONDAY | THURSDAY
Session Three: MONDAY | THURSDAY
Session Four: MONDAY | THURSDAY
