The book of 1 Peter is probably more about suffering than anything else. It might be the only book in the New Testament completely devoted to the subject of suffering. And it shows us that going through trials, troubles, and sufferings is one of the...
When we become Christians we don’t just turn over a new leaf, we’re spiritually raised with Christ and his resurrection power comes into our lives. And so, what does such an empowered life look like? We’re called to be holy, but this is a difficult t...
Jesus’ resurrected power is in our lives now. Even though we are not yet bodily resurrected, Christians are, according to Ephesians 2, raised with Christ and knowing the power of his resurrection. What does that mean? What does it mean to live that k...
When we unite with Jesus Christ, his resurrection power comes into our lives. Even though we believe we’ll be resurrected in our bodies at the end of time, there is already a spiritual resurrection that happens to us now. What does that look like? ...
Jesus’ resurrection isn’t supposed to just change history—it’s supposed to change you and me. The New Testament everywhere says we should expect to encounter the risen Christ. And that’s how our lives are changed. Peter is a case study for us, becau...
Easter is too marvelous for words, but we’re going to try. Luke 24 is an account of the resurrection: from the morning when the empty tomb was discovered, to the middle of the day when Jesus appeared on the road to Emmaus, to the evening when Jesus...
For centuries now, on the Sunday before Easter, the church has observed the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem just days before he was crucified. It’s called Palm Sunday. What does Palm Sunday mean? It means Jesus is king, and it’s impor...
Christianity gives us resources to help us live in a world that’s hard to live in. And in Luke 5, we see a resource we wouldn’t immediately think of as one — that is, that when Jesus calls us, he sends us out into the world to serve. Serving other pe...
When you’re in the wilderness, how do you handle the trials, the difficulties, and the temptations? In Luke 4, we have a famous passage about the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. Jesus is assaulted by the Devil, and he deals with it through the...
The raising of Lazarus is the seventh and climactic of Jesus’ miraculous signs in the Gospel of John. John says Jesus did many miracles, but these seven particularly revealed who Jesus was and what he came to do. And this one is probably the most fam...
The healing of the man born blind is one of Jesus’ miracles that’s called a sign, meaning it symbolizes something about who Jesus was and what he came to do. This is a story about a man who’s born blind, and it takes up an entire chapter. The man is...
In the miraculous sign of the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus takes a few loaves and fish and miraculously feeds a multitude of people. This is the only one of Jesus’ miracles that’s told in all four gospels. And the gospel of John gives us the final dis...
Can you imagine a perfect human being? You may say, “Sure.” But perfection would necessarily be surprising to us because we’re not perfect and we’ve actually never seen perfection. The challenge of the New Testament is to read about Jesus, not just...
I’ve heard people say, “Oh, I wish I had his faith, or her faith,” as if faith is a talent. And I do think there’s a kind of faith that’s a temperament—people who are more trusting or more skeptical—but that’s not saving faith. There is no type of p...
Jesus’ first sign was not feeding the poor. It wasn’t healing the sick or raising the dead. It was keeping a party going. In the book of John, there’s a series of miracles that are called signs. That’s important because it means Jesus’ miracles were...
