Jesus and His Friends: A Devotional Bible Study

By Robert Hale

Meditations and Bible study about Jesus and His followers, both during His ministry and up to modern times.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Mar 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781483519814

Robert Hale

Bob Hale likes to linger in the moonlight. When he's not doing that he is writing about or preparing for the next adventure.

Book preview

"I do not call you servants any longer,

because the servant does not know what the master is doing;

but I have called you friends,

because I have made known to you

everything that I have heard from my Father."

John 15:15

Copyright 2014 by Robert Lathrop Hale, Sr.

All rights reserved.

For a list of the author’s previously-published writings which are included in this book, see the last section of this book.

Several selections have been quoted from The Daily Study Bible Series on the New Testament, which was written by William Barclay and published in 1975 by The Westminster Press, located at that time in Philadelphia, PA. The 1975 revision was based upon the earlier versions which were published by St. Andrew Press, Edinburgh, Scotland, which has granted permission to use this material. See the End Notes for a list of what was quoted.

Unless noted otherwise, the Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright, 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 9781483519814

Dedicated

to my wife Elaine,

our 3 children & their spouses:

Beth & James Lindsey Sr., Bob Jr. & Janet, Steve & Sue,

our 9 grandchildren & their spouses:

Christina & Adam Elliott, Janine & Stephen Reter,

Rachel & Carlos Soriano & their daughter Ioanna,

Shannon & Jamie Gaylor,

James Lindsey Jr. and his wife Mary and their children:

Jasmine, Brieanna, Aubrey, Chloe, & James III,

and our 4 unmarried grandchildren: Justin, Steven, Sam & Stephanie,

and our adopted grandchildren: Keith & Liz Gordon and their daughter Ella.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

THE INCARNATION

Incarnation I and II

Across the Galaxies

Mary

CALLING OF THE DISCIPLES

Feeding the Five Thousand

Andrew I & II

Confrontation

Jesus Calls the Fishermen

Jesus on Peter

Christ and Nathanael

James & John, the Sons of Thunder

James & John

Simon Called Peter

Still Not Getting It

The Call of Matthew

Who’s the Greatest?

The Beatitudes

Mary Magdalene

Judas

The Almost Apostle

JESUS’S TEACHING

Eminent Domain

The Magic Ingredient

The Good Samaritan

Beatitudes

The Second Commandment - Amended

Five Fighting Fingers

HOLY WEEK

Barabbas

The Ultimate Gamble

Friends and Enemies

Joseph of Arimathea

Petering Out

The First Easter

V for Victory

Peter Remembers

Peter

THE CHURCH THROUGH THE AGES

James, the Lord’s Brother

John Remembers

The Left Hand of God

John Mark

Saul/Paul

An Emperor Wonders

Evolution of the Cross I & II

He Keeps Coming Back

Fear

Last Rites

The Most Wanted Man

Are You Running from Me, Jesus?

Today

Long Ago and Far Away

Call to Be Disciples

The Soul of Generosity

Report from Starship One

STUDY HELPS

1. List of Abbreviations for Bible Versions & Other Books

2. Bible Study Tips

3. Bibliography

4. Information about the Holy Land

5. End Notes

INTRODUCTION

One night I woke up with a book idea: Jesus and His Friends. This has become a collection of meditations showing the human side of Jesus’s followers.

I can imagine a Sunday school class talking about the saints. One boy says, I’ve seen them - they’re made of stone. The teacher says, Well, one of them was Peter the Rock. A girl speaks up: The saints are the ones that the light shines through. She had seen them in the stained glass windows.

I think the light shows more of their human side.

My two main sources were Harper’s Bible Dictionary (HBD) and William Barclay’s Daily Study Bible Series (DSB) on the New Testament.

I urge you to read the STUDY HELPS in the back of the book, particularly Bible Study Tips. Then I recommend that you read the introductory Scriptures and the meditations. You could leave the sections after the meditations for later study.

MY PRAYER¹

Give me words

that throb with tears and laughter,

health and wholeness...

words that convey meaning,

words that convey feeling...

small fragments of the Word

which became flesh and dwelt among us,

full of grace and truth.

Robert Hale

Scripture: John 1:14

¹ The Notes are found at the end of the book. The first section of the Notes pertains to William Barclay’s Daily Study Bible Series. The second section pertains to my previously-published writing used in this book. The rest of my writing is now published for the first time.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to the staff and members of Central Presbyterian Church in Towson, a suburb of Baltimore, Maryland, for their encouragement and comments. Thanks to the Senior Pastor, John Schmidt, for the loan of books and for a helpful computer tip. Thanks to the staff of the church library for the use of other books. Thanks to the Associate Pastor, George Antonakos, for encouragement. Thanks to Ian McFadden, Director of Discipleship and Young Adults, for scheduling me for a church school class, and to the excellent dramatic readers (Karen and Stephen Amrhein, Rich Reichley, and my daughter, Beth Lindsey) who read my meditations to the class. Thanks to Gideon Breidegam, Associate Director of Technical Arts, for his comments. Thanks to