The Gospel Coalition

Dear Friends of Crossway,

As you may have heard, a flood recently swept through Crossway’s headquarters. About two feet of water poured into our 32 first-floor offices due to unrelenting rains. The damage was extensive and repairs and rebuilding will take five or six months. You can see the damage here in this video.

More important, however, is the impact this could have on major ministry projects that we have planned.

As a not-for-profit ministry, Crossway is not only committed to publishing the ESV Bible and gospel-centered content, but also to providing God’s Word to hundreds of thousands of people overseas, either free or at a substantially reduced cost. Because of the recent flood, however, some of these international ministry efforts are now at risk.

Your willingness to stand with us today will help Crossway recover and carry forward our not-for-profit ministry and our strategic efforts to reach the world with the gospel and the truth of God’s Word.

That’s why I’m sending this e-mail — first, to ask for your prayers at this critical moment; and, second, to ask (if the Lord should lead you) for a gift of support. Your gift will help us cover three things: (1) the portion of the damage not covered by insurance, and (2) the installation of new safeguards to flood-proof our building. But most importantly (3) your gift will help ensure that crucial Bible ministry projects can continue to advance.

I would be deeply grateful to you if you are able to help us at this critical time. Specifically, we need your help to raise $360,000 by the end of our fiscal year, May 31st. Your support will make it possible especially for us to continue moving forward with the following priority projects:

• Translation costs for the ESV Chinese Study Bible, to be published in Mainland China
• Printing costs for 60,000 copies of the Chinese-English ESV bi-lingual Bible, also for publication and distribution in Mainland China
• Completion and global distribution of the ESV Gospel Transformation Bible this fall
• Development of the Knowing the Bible studies, to be offered free digitally worldwide

Though we don’t know exactly how the Lord will use these events for his kingdom and for his glory, we are confident in his grace and mercy and in his gracious provision for the work he has called us to do—trusting his words in Isaiah 43:2: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.”

With my great appreciation for your prayers and support,

Lane T. Dennis, PhD
President

Crossway.org/support

Greg Koukl:

I think that in some circles there’s pressure for Christian ambassadors to “close the sale” as soon as possible. When pressed for time, get right to the meat of the message. Get to the Gospel. If the person doesn’t respond, you’ve still done your part. Shake the dust off your feet and move on.

A wise ambassador, though, weighs his opportunities and adopts an appropriate strategy for each occasion. Sometimes, the simple truth of the cross is all that’s needed.  The fruit is ripe for harvesting.  Bump it and it falls into your basket.

Usually, though, the fruit is not ripe; the nonbeliever is simply not ready.  He may not even have begun to think about Christianity. Dropping a message on him that, from his point of view, is meaningless or simply unbelievable doesn’t accomplish anything. In fact, it may be the worst thing you can do. He rejects a message he doesn’t understand and then he’s harder to reach next time.

Now here is my own more modest goal. I want to put a stone in his shoe. All I want to do is give him something worth thinking about. I want him to hobble away on a nugget of truth he can’t simply ignore because it continues to poke at him.

I think this is wise counsel. Of course we want our hearer to be saved, and we should pray toward that end. But an all-or-nothing approach to evangelism can be paralyzing for some of us. I sometimes have prayed for the first step of a response simply being a sleepless night as the person has a hard time shaking a certain truth or question.

For more on this approach by Koukl, see his excellent book, Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions.

Robert Plummer and John Mark Terry have edited a new book entitled Paul’s Missionary Methods: In His Time and Ours (IVP Academic, 2012), building upon Roland Allen’s classic Missionary Methods: Saint Paul’s or Ours? from a century ago.

IVP has given me permission to post the entire chapter of Craig Keener’s chapter, “Paul and Spiritual Warfare” (PDF)—taken from Paul’s Missionary Methods edited by Robert L. Plummer and John Mark Terry. Copyright(c) 2012 by Robert L. Plummer and John Mark Terry. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove  IL  60515-1426. www.ivpress.com.

What follows is an excerpt of his helpful discussion on “the armor of God”:

* * *

By comparing the lists in 1 Thessalonians 5:8 and Ephesians 6:14-17, we see that elements of the believer’s armor can prove interchangeable from one letter to another. That is, Paul draws on the particular items in the familiar Roman soldier’s equipment not to pair spiritual concepts with these items in a one to one correspondence, but to illustrate that we need to be spiritually equipped. Salvation or the hope of salvation is a helmet in both cases, but Paul has the breastplate of faith and love in one case, with a breastplate of righteousness and shield of faith in the other.

We should note that his images of spiritual warfare do not involve special formulas or secret techniques, but salvation, faith, love, righteousness and so on. Without having to rule out the “mystical” elements that some see in spiritual warfare at times (as in 2 Kings 6:17), Paul’s images of spiritual warfare tend to be more practical than some imagine. Most involve protective armor, and we are protected by our right relationship with God and one another.

As is also often pointed out, God’s warriors, like Roman soldiers, have protection only for the front and not the back. Soldiers who discarded their shields and fled made easy targets for pursuing enemies; Roman soldiers who marched side by side, advancing on the enemy, were considered virtually invincible.

Whereas soldiers wore some pieces of armor in other circumstances, they normally donned the helmet and breastplate only for battle. The armor depicted here, therefore, involves a spiritual warrior directly engaged in spiritual war, with the assumption that this is the believer’s normal state. . . .

What we can say for certain in Paul’s context is that we dare not wage our battle in our own strength, but by depending on God (Eph 6:10). Western Christians have grown accustomed to depending on economic resources, technology, information and everything else but God; the way to advance the kingdom, however, is by humble recognition that God does the most important work and deserves the real credit.

[Belt]

Because the first piece of armor mentioned guards the waist or loins (Eph 6:14), it refers to a “belt” or “girdle.” It may thus evoke the Roman soldier’s leather apron beneath the armor or the metal belt that guarded his lower abdomen. God’s warrior is protected partly by truth, which in the context of other virtues mentioned here may include integrity (cf. Eph 4:15, 25). For Paul, however, including in Ephesians, “truth” involves particularly the truth of the gospel, recognizing and living in the reality of God’s claims as opposed to the world’s falsehood (see Eph 1:13; 4:21, 24-25; 5:9; cf. Rom 1:18-19). Believers must live and speak consistently with God’s reality.

[Breastplate]

Paul next mentions the “breastplate” (Eph 6:14), meant to protect the chest and usually made of leather with metal over it. God himself wears “righteousness as a breastplate” in Isaiah 59:17, so he can enact justice and righteousness in a world that has abandoned it (Is 59:14-16). Part of God’s mission into which he has invited us as agents is to work for righteousness and justice, for God’s honor and the right treatment of people made in his image. Given Paul’s usual usage, however (including in Eph 4:24; 5:9), this “righteousness” is also part of the new standing and character God has given us in Christ. Only those with this status and heart before God will be pure agents of his righteousness in the world.

[Footwear]

Soldiers also would wear sandals or half boots (Eph 6:15); this was necessary preparation for battle, so that one could advance against the enemy without needing to be distracted by what one might step on. Paul applies the image to “the gospel [good news] of peace,” clearly alluding to Isaiah 52:7, where heralds bring good news of divine deliverance and restoration for God’s people. Readiness to carry the gospel is necessary for God’s warriors to advance and, as we shall see, prepares us for the one offensive weapon that Paul will include: the gospel message (Eph 6:17).

[Shield]

Roman soldiers used rectangular shields about four feet high, covered with leather. Because such shields could be vulnerable to flaming arrows, soldiers could wet their shields before battles where such projectiles were expected. As the soldiers marched together in formation, the front row’s shields covering their front and the second row’s lifted shields guarding both rows from above, they were considered virtually invulnerable to projectiles that individuals hurled against them. Greeks and Romans sometimes thought of sexual temptation in terms of fire or wounds, but the meaning is undoubtedly broader than that; Scripture already used arrows as a metaphor for attacks from the wicked, including slander (Ps 11:2; 57:4; 58:6-7; 64:3; cf. 120:2-4; Prov 25:18). Given the normal case of the Roman soldier, however, Paul might assume something about our defense that we sometimes neglect: we dare not break ranks. We must march together, protecting one another.

[Enemy]

The threat for Paul is not human, as for Roman armies, but “the evil one.” While Satan is powerful, however, Paul declares that the shield of faith is sufficient to put out the fire on his arrows. Believers should not become fearful of Satan’s attacks, but stand firm in faith. When readers think of “faith” today, because of the past two centuries of trends in philosophy we often think of a subjective feeling or of a mental ability to extinguish all doubt, both of which approaches put the focus on the believer’s effort. In Jesus’ teaching, however, the question is not how much faith one has (a mustard seed is enough), but in whom one has faith. In Paul’s letters, Jesus and God the Father are the proper objects of faith. This is not a leap into the dark, as some generalized attitude of belief would be; this is a deliberate step into the light of God’s reality. The protection afforded by faith comes not when we trust our faith, but when we trust God who is absolutely trustworthy and able to protect us.

[Helmet]

Roman soldiers wore for battle bronze (or iron) helmets with long cheek pieces (Eph 6:17). The specific phrase, “helmet of salvation,” echoes Isaiah 59:17, as in Ephesians 6:14. In the immediate context in Isaiah, this helmet referred to God acting to deliver the oppressed from the wicked (Is 59:15-16), but in the larger context of Isaiah the theme of salvation included God delivering his people and all who would turn to him among the nations (e.g., Is 46:13; 49:6; 51:5-8). The message of salvation and God’s reign is also called “good news of peace” (Is 52:7; see also Eph 6:15). That context might suggest that we participate in bringing God’s message of salvation; more directly, given Paul’s usage in 1 Thessalonians 5:8, Paul means that we are protected by means of God’s salvation.

[Sword]

The list climaxes, however, with the only offensive weapon in the soldier’s equipment that Paul will list (Eph 6:17). This limitation is not because Roman soldiers carried only one weapon; in fact they carried more, a pike or lance (or two) as well as their sword and dagger. For believers, however, there is only one weapon—God’s message—and it is logical that Paul chooses the image of the sword over the lance. The front row of an advancing legion carried heavy pikes that deterred attackers and could be thrust into them at fairly close range. Once close battle ensued, however, the heavy pikes became less practical than swords. (The sword here was the gladius, roughly 20-24 inches in length.) Paul envisions hand-to-hand combat, spiritual warfare not from afar at this point but at close range.

Paul declares that this one offensive weapon is the “sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” While God’s word includes Scripture (which Jesus deployed against Satan at his temptation), Paul usually uses this phrase especially for the gospel (e.g., the same term in Rom 10:8, 17; the same idea in Eph 1:13). Every other piece of equipment Paul mentions protects us; the one piece that enables us to take back ground taken by the devil is the gospel—evangelism. Too often the church lives off the benefits of past revivals, waging a merely defensive battle as the world surrounds and constricts the church. The most strategic means God has provided us of reversing the direction of influence is for us to bring the good news of peace and salvation to the world, through evangelism. Evangelism is the one element of spiritual warfare that takes back Satan’s possessions. Without it, spiritual warfare is incomplete. Likewise, we are kept safe by truth, righteousness and salvation.

[Conclusion]

Heralds of peace, bearing the sword of the Spirit, will not always be well received. People in antiquity understood that heralds were granted diplomatic immunity, and any mistreatment of an ambassador signaled an act of war against the sender. Paul, however, is “an ambassador in chains” (Eph 6:20). Rome’s earthly empire was not willing to submit to God’s greater kingdom. Yet past earthly empires, including Rome, now lie in the dust, and God’s kingdom spreads, as promised, among all peoples. Jesus will return, and God’s kingdom will prevail. In the meantime, it often spreads, not through conquest, but through its agents’ suffering, as in Paul’s case.

Today would have been the 100th birthday of Rosa Parks, Civil Rights heroine. The definitive biography has recently been published: The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks, by Jeanne Theoharis, a Brooklyn College political science professor. Charles Blow, writing in the New York Times, provides a summary: “It argues that the romanticized, children’s-book story of a meek seamstress with aching feet who just happened into history in a moment of uncalculated resistance is pure mythology.”

Below is an earlier write-up I posted trying to summarize that fateful day in 1955 when she refused to move her seat on the bus, and what happened in the days after her actions.

On a cool Thursday morning, December 1, 1955, a 42-year-old seamstress named Rosa Parks boarded a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, on her way to work at the Montgomery Fair Department Store, about five miles from her apartment complex—just as she did every weekday morning.

At the end of the workday—around 6 PM—she boarded the bus for her return trip home.

Contrary to some perceptions, she was not sitting in the “White’s Only Section,” but was rather in the middle neutral section with its floating cut-off line (indicated by a movable sign), depending on the number of white passengers.

Three stops later, her actions would set in motion what has been called “the greatest nonviolent revolution in American history (one of the greatest in all history).”

Pulitzer-Prize winning historian Taylor Branch picks up the story in the first volume of his magisterial series on America in the King Years. Describing Rosa Parks as “a tireless worker and churchgoer, of working class station and middle-class demeanor,” he writes:

All thirty-six seats of the bush she boarded were soon filled, with twenty-two Negroes seated from the rear and fourteen whites from the front.

Wikipedia: "The No. 2857 bus which Rosa Parks was riding on before she was arrested (a GM transit bus, serial number 1132). She was sitting in the 2nd row from the front, all the way to the right window (looking from the back)."

Driver J. P. Blake, seeing a white man standing in the front of the bus, called out for the four passengers on the row just behind the whites to stand up and move to the back.

Nothing happened.

Blake finally had to get out of the driver’s seat to speak more firmly to the four Negroes.

“You better make it light on yourselves and let me have those seats,” he said.

At this, three of the Negroes moved to stand in the back of the bus, but Parks responded that she was not in the white section and didn’t think she ought to move. She was in no-man’s-land.

Blake said that the white section was where he said it was, and he was telling Parks that she was in it. As he saw the law, the whole idea of no-man’s-land was to give the driver some discretion to keep the races out of each other’s way. He was doing just that.

When Parks refused again, he advised her that the same city law that allowed him to regulate no-man’s-land also gave him emergency police power to enforce the segregation codes. He would arrest Parks himself if he had to.

Parks replied that he should do what he had to do; she was not moving.

She spoke so softly that Blake would not have been able to hear her above the drone of normal bus noise. But the bus was silent.

Blake notified Parks that she was officially under arrest. She would not move until he returned with the regular Montgomery police.

Here is audio of Mrs. Parks a few months later (April 1956) recounting the story:

Mrs. Parks was not the first to refuse to move, nor the first to be arrested. But leaders like E. D. Nixon needed a “test case” to challenge the system, and Mrs. Parks—with an impeccable reputation and a quiet demeanor—was the ideal candidate. He bailed her out of jail that night.

That evening the idea for a one-day bus boycott was hatched, and with Rosa Parks’s permission Jo Ann Robinson—an Alabama State College professor and head of the Woman’s Political Council—secretly used her school’s mimeograph machine to produce 35,000 handbills calling for a boycott of the Montgomery bus system:

This is for Monday, December 5, 1955

Another woman has been arrested and thrown in jail because she refused to get up out of her seat on the bus for a white person to sit down.

It is the second time since the Claudette Colvin case that a Negro woman has been arrested for the same thing. This has to be stopped.

Negroes have rights too, for if Negroes did not ride the buses, they could not operate. Three-fourths of the riders are Negro, yet we are arrested, or have to stand over empty seats. If we do not do something to stop these arrests, they will continue. The next time it may be you, or your daughter, or mother.

This woman’s case will come up on Monday. We are, therefore, asking every Negro to stay off the buses Monday in protest of the arrest and trial. Don’t ride the buses to work, to town, to school, or anywhere on Monday. You can afford to stay out of school for one day if you have no other way to go except by bus. You can also afford to stay out of town for one day. If you work, take a cab, or walk. But please, children and grown-ups, don’t ride the bus at all on Monday. Please stay off all buses Monday.

The idea of contacting—much less convincing—40,000 people about anything seemed an almost impossible task, especially in pre-social media days. But word quickly spread as the handbills were distributed to students leaving school on Friday, and the local black churches were mobilized as word continued to spread on Sunday.

On Monday morning, December 5, after a brief trial, Mrs. Parks was found guilty and fined $14. Her lawyer appealed to the state court.

The entire city watched in amazement as empty buses like this one rolled along their routes:

That afternoon, at 3 PM, a group of leaders met at Mt. Zion AME Zion Church to discuss extending the boycott beyond that day and to plan a mass gathering that evening at Holt Street Baptist Church, in the working-class district of Montgomery. During that meeting they formed the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), electing as president the young pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church—Martin Luther King Jr. Just 26 years old, he was 15 months into his first pastorate.

King only had 20 minutes or so to prepare his speech. Well before the proceedings began the spacious church overflowed with several thousand people—in the sanctuary, in the balconies, in the basement, and lining the streets outside to listen via loudspeakers.

Thundering applause and sustained cheering erupted when King said the following:

And you know, my friends, there comes a time when people get tired of being trampled over by the iron feet of oppression.

There comes a time, my friends, when people get tired of being plunged across the abyss of humiliation, where they experience the bleakness of nagging despair.

There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life’s July and left standing amid the piercing chill of an alpine November.

There comes a time.

Here is the only audio excerpt I’ve been able to locate—a clip that follows shortly after the excerpt above—though the recording isn’t of great quality:

The boycott made a serious economic impact on the city of Montgomery with its near-empty buses, and required extraordinary discipline, organization, and sacrifice among the black residents of Montgomery. It was not without cost to the black citizens of Montgomery. For example, the Kings’s house was bombed and he spent two weeks in jail.

Mother Pollard, an 80-year-old matriarch, was asked at a mass meeting how she was doing, and her answer summed up the feeling of many: “My feets is tired, but my soul is rested.”

On November 13, 1956, the Supreme Court upheld a federal district court’s ruling that Alabama’s segregation laws were unconstitutional, thereby allowing black bus passengers to sit wherever they wanted. The boycott officially ended December 20, 1956, having lasted for an amazing 381 days. Through non-violent means a revolution was well underway.

If you want a great film on the Montgomery Bus Boycott which accurately and compellingly tells the story above in more details, check out the HBO Film Boycott (2001). You can watch a trailer here.

If you read one thing today on Martin Luther King Day, make it his “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”

Fifty years ago this spring (April 12, 1963), eight white Birmingham clergymen published an open letter as “A Call for Unity.” They urged “calm” and spoke against “extreme,” “unwise” measures, encouraging the black community to settle the issue in the courts, not the streets. They also argued that this was a local matter, urging “outsiders” (like King) to stay out of it.

On the same day that this letter was being published—Good Friday of 1963—King and 50 Birmingham residents were arrested for disobeying the injunction against the process issued by Birmingham’s Commissioner of Public Safety Bull Connor. Four days later (April 16, 1963), King began composing the letter in bits and pieces, and it was passed along piecemeal to his associates to stitch together.

It’s a moving letter, not only for its rhetoric but also for its natural-law argument rooted in the Christian tradition. Yes, King was a man of moral failing, neo-orthodox theology, and political shrewness, but in certain areas he exhibited tremendous moral courage. Let us celebrate what he said right, and said so well.

In the video below you can watch actor Cory Jones recite the contents of the letter:

And here is the text:
Continue

Below is conversation with Sojourn Church’s Daniel Montgomery and Mike Cosper about their new book, Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey (Crossway, 2013).

Most of us emphasize one aspect of Christianity over another. Competing voices tell us that the Christian life is all about this or that: missions, discipleship, worship, the cross, or the kingdom. It’s as if we are navigating the Christian life with fragments of a map—bits and pieces of the good news—rather than the whole picture. If we put those map fragments together, we discover a beautiful, coherent picture. Faithmapping invites Christians to see that map, exploring a whole gospel that forms a whole church who carries that glorious news to the whole world.

You can read an excerpt from the introduction and chapter 4 here, or below:

“Daniel Montgomery and Mike Cosper are wise guides for the journey. In Faithmapping they set out a pattern for personal discipleship and the life of the faithful Christian in the local church. I welcome this book.”
—R. Albert Mohler Jr., President, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

“These days, it seems like ‘gospel-centered’ books are a dime a dozen. Yet, Faithmapping isn’t anything if it’s not unique. The missional focus of this contribution to the gospel-centered movement is a breath of fresh air. Well done.”
—Ed Stetzer, President, LifeWay Research; contributing editor, Christianity Today

“After knowing Daniel and Mike for years, I can affirm that these men live the words of this book. I highly recommend it for those who are new to Christianity or mature in their faith. The title says it all! It is a trusted navigator for those who desire for Christ to be all.”
—Darrin Patrick, Lead Pastor, The Journey, St. Louis, MO; author, For the City and Church Planter

“Faithmapping is excellent. When I wasn’t reading it I was thinking about it, and when I was reading it, I didn’t want to put it down. It is theologically profound and yet very easy to read.”
—Jessica Thompson, coauthor, Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus

“Daniel Montgomery and Mike Cosper are human torches, afire with the gospel and igniting the dry kindling all around them. This book, full of gospel beauty and Bible wisdom, can light up the path in front of you, as you walk the path God is stretching out before your feet. Read it, and feel the fire.”
—Russell D. Moore, Dean, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; author, Tempted and Tried

The opening paragraph of a Spurgeon sermon from 1880:

Were you ever in a new trouble, one which was so strange that you felt that a similar trial had never happened to you and, moreover, you dreamt that such a temptation had never assailed anybody else? I should not wonder if that was the thought of your troubled heart. And did you ever walk out upon that lonely desert island upon which you were wrecked and say, “I am alone—alone—ALONE—nobody was ever here before me”? And did you suddenly pull up short as you noticed, in the sand, the footprints of a man? I remember right well passing through that experience—and when I looked, lo, it was not merely the footprints of a man that I saw, but I thought I knew whose feet had left those imprints. They were the marks of One who had been crucified, for there was the print of the nails. So I thought to myself, “If He has been here, it is no longer a desert island. As His blessed feet once trod this wilderness-way, it blossoms now like the rose and it becomes to my troubled spirit as a very garden of the Lord!”

—Charles Haddon Spurgeon, “The Education of the Sons of God” (Metropolitan Tabernacle: June 10, 1880).

HT: Rachel Aviv

Richard Lovelace:

The pattern of congregational life established by the beginning of the Middle Ages, in which the laity become passive observers of the redemptive mystery instead of celebrants and participants mutually edifying one another, has resulted in an individualistic spirituality that the church has never quite abandoned.

In this model of the Christian life the individual believer is connected to the source of grace like a diver who draws his air supply from the surface through a hose.  He is essentially a self-contained system cut off from the other divers working around him. If their air supply is cut off, this does not damage him nor can he share with them the air that he receives.  The situation would be no different if he were working alone a hundred miles away.

Lovelace contrasts this with the body metaphor in the New Testament:

The organic metaphor for the church used by Paul absolutely negates this conception by asserting that grace is conveyed through the body of Christ along horizontal channels as well as through the vertical relationship of each believer to God.  No individual, congregation or denomination of Christians is spiritually independent of the others. . . .  Therefore, ‘the normal Christian life’ is not simply a function of an individual believer’s relationship to God.  If he is isolated from Christians around him who are designed to be part of the system through which he receives grace, or if those Christians are themselves spiritually weak, he cannot be as strong and as filled with the Spirit as he otherwise would be.

—Richard Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life: An Evangelical Theology of Renewal (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 1979), pp. 167-168.

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” . . . If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. (1 Corinthians 12:21, 26)

In the 1970s, renowned archaeological architect Leen Ritmeyer, with his training in both ancient architecture and conservation of historic sites, supervised the team that reconstructed a large palace not far from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. He has tentatively identified the “Palatial Mansion” (or “Herodian Mansion”) as the place of residence for Annas the high priest. If this is correct, then this would be a “look inside” the first phase of Jesus’s Jewish trial. And it may explain things like where the courtyard was located and how Jesus could look at Peter though they were in two different locations (Jesus inside and Peter outside, warming himself by a charcoal fire).

In doing background research for a forthcoming volume co-authored with Andreas Köstenberger (Jesus’s Final Week: An Easter Chronology and Commentary), I corresponded with Dr. Ritmeyer, who was kind enough to answer a few questions and to share some of his reconstruction drawings with us.

How big is the Palatial Mansion?

The footprint of this magnificent building is 6,500 sq. feet. However, as the whole building was two stories high, the usable living space was almost twice as large. No other private residence of this size has been excavated anywhere in Israel.

Where is it located?

The Palatial Mansion is located in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. It was excavated under the leadership of the late Prof. Nahman Avigad in 1973 and ’74 and later restored from 1985-’87. The Palatial Mansion is now part of the Herodian Quarter of the Wohl Museum that is open to visitors and is located on 1 Hakara’im Street, off the main Hurva Square in the Jewish Quarter.

What is it about the location and the features of the building suggest to you that this might be the palace of the high priest?

There is no doubt that this Mansion was occupied by priests that served in the Temple, especially as it was located on the eastern slope of the Upper City just opposite the southwest corner of the Temple Mount. From the Mansion it was only a short walk from here to the Royal Bridge whereby the priests could cross directly to the Temple platform without first having to descend into the Tyropoeon Valley.

The Palatial Mansion is the largest of the six dwellings that were excavated in this area and that are now incorporated in the Wohl Museum. These dwellings are the finest examples of Herodian architecture, with mosaic floors and walls decorated either with fresco or stucco.

Could you “walk” us through it and describe what we would see?

Its overall plan is centred round a paved courtyard. The entrance to the building was from the west via steps which led down from an entrance door. This led into a vestibule whose mosaic floor with a central rosette pattern was found almost completely intact with the charred beams of the ceiling lying on top of it.

From the vestibule, one could either turn into the fresco room on the right, which had panels painted in red and yellow on its plastered walls in the style of the Pompeian frescoes or, to the left, into the magnificent Reception Room with its stuccoed walls and ceiling.

Proceeding straight on from the vestibule, the visitor entered the courtyard, from where the rooms of the eastern wing could be reached. Of this wing only one of the ground floor rooms, a bathroom, has been preserved. This contained a low bench and a stepped sitting pool. Its floor was paved with a simple patterned mosaic. The bathroom was probably used before descending into one of the two mikvehs [ritual baths] that lay beneath the courtyard.

A stairway in the northern side of the courtyard leads down to the basement level of the eastern wing. Again there is a vestibule from which one could gain access to a large vaulted storeroom on the west. On the basement’s eastern end were two additional mikvehs, one of which had a side bath. The second mikveh was much larger and had a vaulted ceiling. This mikveh was exceptional in that it had a double doorway and an entrance porch paved with mosaic.

The Mansion stands out from the other dwellings in that it had four mikva’ot (ritual baths) which is quite unusual and has no parallel in any building in Jerusalem or in all of the Land of Israel.

All of the above, coupled with the traces of a great conflagration found in the Palatial Mansion, point to a possible identification of this residence with the palace of Annas, the High Priest. Annas’ Palace is recorded in Josephus’ War 2.426 as having been burnt, together with the Palace of Agrippa and Bernice, in A.D. 70.

Tell us a little bit about the size and features of reception hall, where the first phase of the trial before part of the Sanhedrin may have taken place.

The Reception Room of the Palatial Mansion, which would better be described as a hall, measures 33 feet by 21 feet. Because of its large size, it is assumed that it was used to receive guests and for various functions. The walls of this magnificent room were decorated with white stucco. The northern wall was in the best state of preservation, with the stucco remains preserved almost to the height of the ceiling.

The basic decorative pattern consisted of broad panels in between two bands of imitation masonry, modelled on “headers and stretchers.” However, on the basis of the stucco remains of the northern wall that extended to the greatest height, it was clear that there was an additional band of decoration just below the ceiling. The ceiling was destroyed, but many ceiling fragments were found lying on the floor. All the pieces showed geometrical patterns in relief—raised sections separated by a narrow band which had a groove cut in its centre which was picked out in red paint. It was clear that the original design must have been divided into two separate parts, as some fragments had an “egg and dart” motif, which is a pattern based on alternate eggs and arrow-heads, while the remainder were plain. My reconstruction design shows that a band of just over 3.5 feet broad of hexagonal patterns surrounded the ceiling of the room, while the central panel was divided into two squares of a design based on octagons, with a narrow strip in between. The octagonal pattern was formed using the fragments with the “egg and dart” design, while the hexagonal pattern, which had as its basis four hexagons attached to the four sides of a square, used the plain fragments. This design is conjectural but fits in well with the room and has definite parallels with patterns preserved in the vaulted stucco ceilings at Pompeii dating from the first century B.C. and also in the stone ceilings of Baalbek and Palmyra.

Let me review what we know from the biblical accounts about the place of Peter in this story. After Jesus’s arrest, Peter and John followed the arresting party at a distance. Because John “was known to the high priest, he entered with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest, but Peter stood outside at the door.” John put in a good word for Peter, and the servant girl guarding the door let Peter in to the courtyard (John 18:15-16). So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the servant girl who kept watch at the door, and brought Peter in. While Jesus was inside the residence, Peter stood with the guards and servants in the middle of the courtyard outside, warming himself by a charcoal fire (Matt. 26:58, 69-71; Mark 14:54, 66-67; Luke 22:54-55, 61; John 18:18). In the Palatial Mansion you reconstructed, where was the courtyard from the Reception room?

To the east of the Reception Room was a large open stone-paved courtyard round which all the rooms were arranged.

So if Jesus was inside (on trial) and Peter as outside (in the courtyard), how could Jesus turn and look at Peter?

The Gospel record speaks of Jesus being interrogated by the priests, elders, and council in the palace of the High Priest, which at that time was Caiaphas, son-in-law of Annas (Matt. 26.57; Mark 14.53; Luke 22.54). However, John 18:13 intimates that the director of the first interrogation was Annas himself. The task of harmonising this gospel record with those of the Synoptic gospels would be far less difficult if we were to assume that the old High Priest’s Palace of Annas continued to be used for such functions, even if it was a relative of his and not he himself that held the office. He was, after all, a type of éminence grise who continued to direct affairs by promoting members of his own family to the high priest’s office, long after he himself had vacated it.

It must be said that the plan of this Palatial Mansion, with its central courtyard and lavish reception hall, makes a visualisation of the scene of Peter warming himself at an outdoor fire while Jesus is interrogated inside, eminently possible. To heat the rooms of the Palatial Mansion, wooden beams, that had been previously prepared and partly burnt, would have been ignited and the glowing embers placed in braziers that were put in the rooms. It is not difficult to imagine Peter standing near the burning logs to warm himself.

After Peter was identified as a follower of Jesus, he tried to leave the building (Matt. 26:71). First, he would have removed himself from the light of the fire and then edged closer to the exit. Here, at the southwest corner of the courtyard, there is a direct line of vision to the centre of the Reception Room. The arrow in the picture shows the line of vision from the corner of the courtyard to the centre of the Reception Room.

This makes it possible to visualise how Jesus, if he was standing in the middle of this room, could look back to see Peter standing in this part of the courtyard (where the young lady in the photograph is standing—see picture below). This is the only scenario that allows the tragic meeting of eyes described in Luke 22:61: “And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter and Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.”

There is one particular place in a corner of the courtyard, from where, looking through two open doorways, one has a straight line vision to the centre of the Reception Room. It is chilling to stand at that place and imagine Jesus looking back at Peter after the cock had crowed the final time. This picture shows where Peter would have stood in the corner of the courtyard, viewed from the centre of the Reception Room.

Here’s a detail I recently noticed for the first time in rereading the Gospel accounts. Mark 14:66 says that Peter was in the courtyard “below.” What could that mean?

The Mansion is built on a slope, going down in an easterly direction. The entrance was higher than the courtyard, so Peter would have come down to where he was. To leave the palace, he would have had to climb up some steps before leaving by the front door.

What happened to Annas’ palace?

As previously mentioned, Josephus records in War 2.426 that the Palace of Annas the high priest was burnt, together with the Palace of Agrippa and Bernice in A.D. 70. When the Palatial Mansion was excavated, there was evidence that the building had been destroyed in a massive conflagration. The same fate befell most of the buildings of the Upper City, a prime example of which is the Burnt House.

After the destruction of Jerusalem, this area was buried by destruction debris and not uncovered until the reconstruction of the Jewish Quarter in the wake of the wanton Jordanian destruction that was carried out between 1948 and 1967. We are very fortunate to have been able to excavate and restore this most important historical building.

For higher quality pictures and other drawings, see the Ritmeyers’s CD vol. 2, Jerusalem in the Time of Christ, and the book, Jerusalem in the Year 30 AD.

In this piece on “Learning at Jesus’ Feet,” John Frame answers seven questions that sometimes arise when students consider a seminary education:

1. Can I afford it?
2. Could seminary be a spiritual danger to me?
3. Will seminary reduce my effectiveness?
4. Is it right to leave my present ministry in order to go to seminary?
5. But I have opportunities for training with my church or ministry organization. Isn’t that sufficient?
6. But isn’t it better to prepare for ministry while doing ministry?
7. But is God calling me to seminary?

You can read his answers here.

In particular, here is his answer to question 5, on whether or not its sufficient to get training just through church or a parachurch organization:

For some people it may be. And I would hope that someday, somehow, seminary-level training might be available through every local church and ministry organization. But, as of now, most of them just aren’t at that point. In most cases, seminary training takes you to a whole new level of understanding, beyond local ministry training.

You might think that you can get this level of understanding just by reading books by seminary professors. But if you go to seminary, you’ll be studying with the people who write the books. You can ask them questions, which will help you not only to get answers, but also (and more important) to learn how they think. You’ll get frameworks, paradigms, ways of bringing Bible truth together that just aren’t available elsewhere. Consider these examples:

a. Do you understand the covenant? Jesus came to put the “new covenant” into effect. But what is the new covenant, and how is it different from the old? When we present the gospel, we teach people to believe in Christ as their personal “Lord and savior.” But both Lord and Savior are covenantal terms. Lord is the name of God that designates him as the head of the covenant, and Savior tells us what he does in that office. I’ve written an 850-page book, Doctrine of God, to show that covenant Lordship is the key to what the Bible says about God and about Jesus. Do you know what covenant Lordship means? If not, are you sure you can present the Gospel as the apostles did? You can learn about this in seminary—at least in the seminary where I teach! I don’t know where else you can study this doctrine in depth.

b. When the apostles were filled with the Spirit to evangelize the world, they presented Jesus as the fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures. As Jesus taught the two disciples in Luke 24, the apostles proclaimed from the Old Testament that the death and Resurrection of Christ had to happen. It was not just an accident. So they preached that anyone who really believes the Old Testament must believe in Jesus. Can you do that? That’s a basic part of preaching the Gospel, according to Scripture, but almost nobody knows how to do that today. After his Resurrection, Jesus taught his disciples how to do it (Luke 24:27). You can learn how to do that at seminary, and maybe nowhere else.

c. Do you understand how Jesus fulfills the Old Testament offices of prophet, priest, and king, and what difference this makes to church government and to your personal Christian life? Do you understand why the church is so important to God, as his people, the body of Christ, the bride of Christ, and not just a collection of individuals? Learning about this can revolutionize your mission strategy and the priorities of your own life. But where can you study this in depth other than in seminary?

d. What about just reading and teaching the Bible? Can you imagine how much richer your teaching could be if you could read Scripture in the original languages and learn how to interpret the Greek and Hebrew texts? You could learn the basic grammar from going through a book. But you need also to learn idioms and literary styles. You need to learn about the literary genres in the Bible. You need to learn the difference between synonymous and antithetical parallelism, and where the emphasis falls in a chiastic structure (note: it doesn’t fall at the beginning or the end). Well, I don’t know where you can learn this sort of thing except in seminary.

e. How much do you know about the history of the church? It’s true that Scripture, not church history, is our final authority. But it’s also true that “those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it,” and “we should not try to re-invent the wheel.” Many of the heresies appearing today are just repetitions of heresies that have appeared before in church history. Many of our questions about worship, nurture, and evangelism have appeared before as well. It’s good to know how the church dealt with these issues in the past. Sometimes they’ve been wrong, sometimes right. But we need to be able to avoid their mistakes and to build on their achievements. Where can you get that kind of knowledge other than in seminary?

 

John Piper, Greg Gilbert, and Russell Moore; moderated by Ligon Duncan.

Piper and Grudem were part of writing the Danver’s Statement. The term “complementarian” was coined at a breakfast meeting in 1986.

Piper was teaching at Bethel College between 1974 and 1980. Speakers coming to chapel were increasingly aggressive; Virginia Mollenkott called their view “obscene.”

Moore is concerned that “complementarian” can be a box to be checked, but still conforming to the pattern of this age. We have to deal with things like gender reassignment surgery—something that someone like Martin Luther never had to deal with!

Gilbert sees a lot of functional egalitarianism.

Why include this issue at a conference called “Together for the Gospel?” Why highlight it when it divides us?

Piper: A really good question. You don’t have to be a complementarian to be saved; it’s not essential at that level. But what are the implications of not following through with what Ephesians 5 or 1 Timothy 2 seem to see? The issues hermeneutically for the gospel are significant. You have to do hermeneutical gymnastics, and sooner or later you’ll get the gospel wrong. If you say “there is no head” and “there is no submission” you cancel out the visible gospel in marriage. If you deny that men should be the leaders, it’s going to malfunction in the church. It’s written on the heart to malfunction longterm when complementarianism is not put into practice.

Gilbert: In order to get to an egalitarian conclusion you have to bring in some bad DNA that corrodes the authority of Scripture until you get to the heart of the gospel.

Moore: Ephesians 5 says marriage is a mystery designed to show you Christ and the church. God creates Adam to have someone taken like him who is different from him and they become one flesh. To strike at that, you tear apart the image of the gospel. The question is not male headship—but what kind of male headship we will have. When we have a male headship unhinged from the gospel, women and children are going to be hurt. If we don’t show self-sacrificial male headship, then it will be satanic to the core.

Duncan: (1) Some guys lean into complementarianism; (2) other guys backburner this; (3) others question the issue itself, wondering if we have baptized something traditional.

Moore: There’s another category: (4) hyper-masculinity—more Nimrod than Jesus of Nazareth or Joseph.

When people embrace this issue, they become counter-cultural. It looks gloriously strange. We need to stop mimicking the culture—even in the kind of pictures we put in our publications (“the supermodels shall inherit the earth”).

Gilbert: When you’re the pastor of a local church it’s almost impossible to backburner the issue—who is going to teach? You better have some well-formulated thoughts. It’s possible to mess up by framing it purely in terms of negatives (what we can’t do). We should talk about women serving in every way in the church that the Bible commends—though there are certain roles God has reserved for men in God’s wisdom.

Duncan: Where do you see the receptiveness of this message?

Piper: I talk to pretty conservative places. It amazes me the difference between the 20s/30s crowd today vs. what he saw in the late 80s. Now you have guys here (like Chandler, Platt, DeYoung) who embrace this and have thousands of gifted women who love this.

The question egalitarians have never satisfactorily answered for me is: If you’re raising an 8 year old girl, and she asks, “What does it mean to be a woman and not a man?” or a boy says “to be a man and not a woman?” You can’t just speak instead of plumbing (that’s not personhood), and you can’t just speak about virtues (because that doesn’t differentiate). They can’t answer this. Piper tried to answer this question in What’s the Difference?

Duncan: Not everyone who comes to T4G is complementarian. Some are willing to be persuaded that this is biblical and important.

Moore: You have to wrestle with texts like Ephesians 5, 1 Peter 3, 1 Timothy 2. You also have to deal with complementarianism—what it is, and not just its caricature. It’s not “woman, get me my chips.” But “what is in the best interest of my bride and my children, dying daily to self?” Jesus in washing his disciples’ feet leads lovingly and gently with words, not in passivity or total sovereignty.

Gilbert: I want to demonstrate biblical masculinity and use words if necessary—so I want to yield my time to Dr. Piper!

Difference of role does not denigrate dignity.

Piper: I’d start with Ephesians—that’s the clearest. A woman should submit to her husband; a husband should be the head. Even if one can’t prove that kephale means head (by doing what Grudem can do by looking up 3,000 uses), and one tries to make it mean source—what it still turns out to be is the source of protection, provision, and leadership. It’s what every woman wants: to be loved and respected.

Then I’d go to 1 Timothy 2: teaching and having authority are the two things that distinguish between elders and deacons. They should be men. And Paul grounds it in creation.

Then go back to Genesis 1 and 2. Why does God set things up this way with given directions to Adam? Why is Adam so passive instead of protecting her from the tempter?

Romans 10:5-17:

For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

The gospel has enemies; but sometimes it is underestimated by its friends.

In the T4G affirmations and denials (2006), they wrote:

We affirm that salvation is all of grace, and that the Gospel is revealed to us in doctrines that most faithfully exalt God’s sovereign purpose to save sinners and in His determination to save his redeemed people by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to His glory alone.

We deny that any teaching, theological system, or means of presenting the Gospel that denies the centrality of God’s grace as His gift of unmerited favor to sinners in Christ can be considered true doctrine.

We affirm that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is God’s means of bringing salvation to His people, that sinners are commanded to believe the Gospel, and that the Church is commissioned to preach and teach the Gospel to all nations.

We deny that evangelism can be reduced to any program, technique, or marketing approach. We further deny that salvation can be separated from repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

We affirm that salvation comes to those who truly believe and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

We deny that there is salvation in any other name, or that saving faith can take any form other than conscious belief in the Lord Jesus Christ and His saving acts.

These issues remain. Our churches must begin to look like gospel people. But first it has to be heard. And first it has to be articulated. And we dare not underestimate the power of the articulated gospel.

In Romans Paul makes the centrality of Christ and the universality of the gospel clear, revealed in both the OT and the NT. Christ’s death satisfies the wrath of God to demonstrate the justice of God. There’s no condemnation. In Romans 10, Paul is following Romans 9, quintessentially displaying the sovereignty of God. In Romans 10 we find the “machinery of salvation” (Spurgeon).

The Word Is Brought Near

We come to faith in Christ because the Word is brought near to us. He has spoken to us in his Son (Heb 1). First, it was brought near to Israel; they did not go to find the Torah—it was given to them. Now it is near to us. Life is in obedience; death is in disobedience. He’s writing to both Jews and Gentiles to whom the gospel has come near. It is now our sacred responsibility to bring it near to others. It is a Words that is words. The point is not the proximity of the gospel, but the hearing of the gospel, which requires articulation. Without articulation there is no salvation.

Rom. 10:8: it is a word of (i.e., leads to) faith. Hearing they believe, believing they confess, confessing they are saved.

The Power of the Gospel to Save

Here is the “well-meant offer of the gospel.” We are to preach the gospel to all persons everywhere; if they believe and confess they will be saved. Rom. 10:9-13: there is no footnote or asterisks or hypothetical. This is an unconditional, infallible promise, and it’s an unmistakable command. How do we know the elect? It’s because they believe and confess and are saved—and that requires the preaching of the gospel. The content of the gospel is in Rom. 10:9: confess with the lips that Jesus is Lord; believe in the heart that he was raised from the death. We should be promiscuous and undiscriminating in our preaching of the gospel. We are in the “sowing business”—not “soil management.” God bless the sowers who don’t get to see the harvest but are confident in the power of the gospel to save.

Rom 9:12—Paul makes the revolutionary statement that there is no distinction in terms of our need for the Savior and in the Savior’s provision. In the mystery of the sovereign purposes of God the word was brought near to us, we were called, we believed the gospel, we repented and confessed.

The Necessity of Articulating the Gospel

It is not brought near without words. It is multi-faceted, but most essentially it is verbal. The supposed comment of St. Francis of Assisi (preach the gospel at all times, use words if necessary) sounds like we can bring the gospel near by being there, by being kind, being righteous, and being loving. These are signs of the gospel, but the gospel requires articulation. Whatever you’re doing when you’re not using words, you’re not preaching the gospel. You may be giving evidence of and witness to the gospel, but it still has to be taught and explained. The NT is replete with verbs showing the verbal nature of the gospel.

We certainly don’t want to reverse the Assisi-comment: we don’t want to preach the gospel without looking like gospel people. We must demonstrate the gospel. But we really can’t do much of importance without words. Most of what we do that is most important in like is dependent on words. Imagine trying to communicate the most important things of life without words. At least in part, the image of God involves reflecting the Creator in the use of words. Meaning requires orality.

See the important, soon-to-be-released study from Duane Litfin: Word versus Deed: Resetting the Scales to a Biblical Balance (Crossway, 2012). Gestures are important but words are required. We are saved as we hear the pattern of right words and confess that Jesus is Lord.

1 Thessalonians 2:13:

“And we also thank God constantly1 for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men2 but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.”

1 Corinthians 15:1-11:

“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.”

Without the preaching, there is no believing. God intended the power of the gospel to be demonstrated through the word of faith produces faith and confession.

We are also to persuade. We should be unapologetically conversionist.

The Berlin World Congress on Evangelism put forward this definition in 1966: “Evangelism is the proclamation of the gospel of the crucified and risen Christ, the only redeemer of men, according to the Scriptures, with the purpose of persuading condemned and lost sinners to put their trust in God by receiving and accepting Christ as Savior through the power of the Holy Spirit, and to serve Christ as Lord in every calling of life and in the fellowship of His Church, looking toward the day of His coming in glory.”

The gospel requires exclusivity and profession.

1974 Lausanne Congress: ” To evangelize is to spread the good news that Jesus Christ died for our sins and was raised from the dead according to the Scriptures, and that as the reigning Lord he now offers the forgiveness of sins and the liberating gift of the Spirit to all who repent and believe. Our Christian presence in the world is indispensable to evangelism, and so is that kind of dialogue whose purpose is to listen sensitively in order to understand. But evangelism itself is the proclamation of the historical, biblical Christ as Saviour and Lord, with a view to persuading people to come to him personally and so be reconciled to God. In issuing the gospel invitation we have no liberty to conceal the cost of discipleship. Jesus still calls all who would follow him to deny themselves, take up their cross, and identify themselves with his new community. The results of evangelism include obedience to Christ, incorporation into his Church and responsible service in the world.

Christopher Wright says “the whole gospel” must be:

• a Christ-centred story to be told
• a hope-filled message to be proclaimed
• a revealed truth to be defended
• a new status to be received
• a transformed life to be lived
• a divine power to be celebrated.

We cannot teach or tell the gospel without words.

With help from Craig Blomberg’s excellent Jesus and the Gospels, here’s a reconstruction of events on Easter Sunday. This is my final installment in the Holy Week series.

Matthew 28:1

Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.

Mark 16:1-3

When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. And they were saying to one another,

“Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?”

Luke 24:1

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared.

John 20:1

Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.

Matthew 28:2-7

And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women,

“Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.”

Mark 16:4-7

And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. And he said to them,

“Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.”

Luke 24:2-7

And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them,

“Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.”

Mark 16:18

And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

Matthew 28:8

So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.

John 20:2

So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them,

“They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”

Matthew 28:9-10

And behold, Jesus met them and said,

“Greetings!”

And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him.

Then Jesus said to them,

“Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”

Luke 24:8-11

And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.

John 20:3-10

So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes.

Luke 24:12

But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.

Luke 24:13-35

That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them,

“What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?”

And they stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him,

“Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”

And he said to them,

“What things?”

And they said to him,

“Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.”

And he said to them,

“O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, but they urged him strongly, saying,

“Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.”

So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. They said to each other,

“Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”

And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying,

“The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!”

Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.

Luke 24:36-43

As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them,

“Peace to you!”

But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit.

And he said to them,

“Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”

And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them,

“Have you anything here to eat?”

They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them.

John 20:19-23

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them,

“Peace be with you.”

When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again,

“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”

And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,

“Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

Andreas Köstenberger and I are working on a book together tentatively titled, Jesus’s Final Week: What Really Happened?

Throughout this week I’ll provide the rough harmony/chronology of the words and actions of Jesus in the final week of his pre-resurrection life.

Jesus instructs his disciples Peter and John to secure a large upper room in a house in Jerusalem and to prepare for the Passover meal

Matthew 26:17-19

Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying,

“Where will you have us prepare for you to eat the Passover?”

He said,

“Go into the city to a certain man and say to him,

‘The Teacher says,

My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.’”

And the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they prepared the Passover.

Mark 14:12-16

And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him,

“Where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?”

And he sent two of his disciples and said to them,

“Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him, and wherever he enters, say to the master of the house,

‘The Teacher says,

Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’

And he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready; there prepare for us.”

And the disciples set out and went to the city and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.

Luke 22:7-13

Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed.

So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying,

“Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat it.”

They said to him,

“Where will you have us prepare it?”

He said to them,

“Behold, when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him into the house that he enters and tell the master of the house,

‘The Teacher says to you,

Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’

And he will show you a large upper room furnished; prepare it there.”

And they went and found it just as he had told them, and they prepared the Passover.

In the evening Jesus eats the Passover meal with the Twelve, tells them of the coming betrayal, and institutes the Lord’s Supper Continue

Andreas Köstenberger and I are working on a book together tentatively titled, Jesus’s Final Week: What Really Happened?

Throughout this week I’ll provide the rough harmony/chronology of the words and actions of Jesus in the final week of his pre-resurrection life.

Jesus’ disciples see the withered fig tree on their return to Jerusalem from Bethany

Matthew 21:20-22

When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying,

“How did the fig tree wither at once?”

And Jesus answered them,

“Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”

Mark 11:20-21

As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. And Peter remembered and said to him,

“Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.”

Jesus engages in conflict with the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem

Continue