When asked by the religious leaders of His day for a sign that He was the "Promised One," Jesus responded by telling them that the only sign He would give them would be the sign of Jonah. This is significant because the third chapter of Jonah describes the prophet as being a hostage for three days in the belly of the great fish. After he agrees to carry a message of redemption and salvation to Nineveh, he is brought to the people to deliver God's message. As the story goes, Jonah preached for forty days and the people of Nineveh repented in sackcloth and ashes so the city would not be overthrown. Likewise, Jesus spent three days in the heart of the earth proclaiming His gospel of the kingdom. Afterwards, He spent forty days with His disciples teaching them how to defeat the kingdom of darkness. "40 Days With Jesus" is a fictional account of two witnesses who travel back in time to ancient Israel and observe selected moments in each of the forty days Jesus spent with His disciples following His resurrection. Even though the accounting of this period is absent in the scriptures there are important revelations that can be gleaned from the parables and examples included in the gospel record. Accordingly, the authors have taken some liberties to retell and reinforce some of the experiences as they are recorded in the gospels. It is not intended that these invented circumstances or scenes reinterpret or modify the text. Instead, this account will hopefully add an element of adventure to the "greatest story ever told." What is known for certain is that whatever Jesus told His disciples changed the world and framed the content of the things they remembered. In fact, during those forty days Jesus revealed Himself from the Old Testament scriptures and He communicated how He fulfilled ancient prophecies. Perhaps, more important, He taught His disciples how to overcome evil through the power of the Holy Spirit. "And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written..." John 21:25 (KJV)
Jesus wants every person to experience His life and use that knowledge to form a personal relationship with Him. He certainly did not sacrifice His life on the cross at Calvary to merely tell a story. Accordingly, this book is intended to achieve that end. Each reader will travel through time with Charles and Sharon Person for forty days. At the end of that journey the prayer is that each person will know the resurrected Jesus.
