Access All Areas

Jeff Lucas

• Publisher: David C Cook
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9780830780846

It’s what you’d want if you were attending an important event: a front row seat. That way you’d be guaranteed a great view, and up close and personal look at the performance. No wonder the best seats are sold at a massive premium.

Jesus made the decision to allow his three closest friends, Peter, James and John, access to a number of episodes that nobody else - the rest of the disciples included - enjoyed. These were not VIP passes. It isn’t that Jesus considered the three to be more important or significant than the others, but there were strategic reasons for their inclusion. Over the next couple of months, we’ll take a seat alongside them, and see what we can glean from the unique vantage point they enjoyed. As they watched a young girl being raised from the dead, were stunned on the Mount of Transfiguration, and then fought sleep in Garden of Gethsemane, we’ll ask: how did these episodes shape their faith, and prepare them for the joy and pains that they would face as they moved toward apostolic responsibility? And what can we learn from their journey?

Table of contents

• Introduction
• 1. Amazing Grace That Calls Us Close
• 2. Peter: Follower and Fisherman
• 3. Peter: An Ordinary Life
• 4. Peter: A Good Brother and Friend
• 5. Peter: Honesty and Questions
• 6. Peter: So Very Right, and Then So Very Wrong
• 7. Peter: Don’t Define Him by His Worst Moment
• 8. James: A Common Name
• 9. James: Family Impact
• 10. James: A Junction Day
• 11. James: Leaving Immediately
• 12. James: Two and Two Makes Five
• 13. How about a Throne?
• 14. James and His Mother: A Worrying Thought
• 15. John: Yes, Jesus Loves Me
• 16. John: Asking Questions
• 17. John: We’ve Got the Franchise
• 18. John: A Cup, a Promise, and Reconciliation
• 19. John: Please, Look after My Mother
• 20. Nicknames or New Names
• 21. Gethsemane
• 22. Gethsemane: Disappointment
• 23. Gethsemane: Mind the Gap
• 24. Gethsemane: Pray with Me
• 25. Good Friday, Gethsemane: Alone
• 26. The Birth of Belief
• 27. Jairus’ Daughter and a Desperate Woman
• 28. It’s Not about Formulas
• 29. To Boldly Ask
• 30. Faith Faces the Facts
• 31. Mission Impossible?
• 32. Avoiding Sarcasm
• 33. Compassion
• 34. Life Isn’t Fair
• 35. “Whatever” Faith
• 36. Get Out Now
• 37. Death Is Sleep
• 38. Let’s Get Practical
• 39. Mountaintop Experiences
• 40. Communion Transforms
• 41. The Big Story
• 42. Revelation and Ridiculous Ideas
• 43. Listen to Jesus
• 44. What Really Matters
• 45. It’s Really Real
• 46. How, Not When
• 47. What Happened to Them?
• 48. Grace to Step Back
• 49. James
• 50. James Killed, Peter Spared
• 51. John: Faithful to the End
• 52. John: Legacy of Love
• Notes