After a six week break we'll be back in our study of the Gospel according to John on Sunday, January 8. We stopped at the end of chapter 19 studying the burial of Jesus by Joseph and Nicodemas. This week we begin a study of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead but that was a "revivification." A what? Lazarus was raised from the dead but he died again, he had only been revived from the dead. Resurrection means a continuing life in a body that does not perish. Jesus was not simply revived in the same body; resurrection meant a new kind of body! "Sown in weakness, raised in power; sown mortal, raised immortal" (see 1 Corinthians 15:35ff) Jesus had a body that could eat, be seen, be touched etc but one that rose through grave clothes and could pass through walls. This was the kind of body we were meant to have in the beginning...not bound by the rest of creation and subject to it but glorious. Jesus is the first fruits or the proto-type of the resurrection body. We don't want to be simply revivified, we want resurrection and because He's alive, we too shall live. Are you ready for the resurrection?