Baptist & Reflector

Telling the Story of Tennessee Baptists Since 1835

  • Home
  • Tennessee
  • SBC
  • Columnists
  • Culture
  • SS Lessons
  • Tennescene
  • Radio B&R

APRIL 11: THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

April 5, 2021

By Michael Julian
Pastor, Macedonia Baptist Church, Kenton

Focal Passage: John 15:26-27; 16:7-15 

Sunday School Lesson Bible Studies For LifeDo you like having an advantage when engaged in competition? Let me take an example from the madness that is basketball in March. We can be sure each coaching staff has dissected every cut of film concerning their opponent in order to gain an advantage for their players on the court. Each team wants to win.

In the Christian life, we seek an advantage. We seek victory. Our adversary, the devil, prowls about looking for targets to devour. We do not seek to live according to the flesh, but we seek to live according to the Spirit of God. And there is our decided advantage. The Holy Spirit. He is a person and not an impersonal force, like you would find in the Star Wars movies. God is calling us to yield to and walk by His promised and provided Spirit. 

John 15:26-27: At the end of chapter 14, Jesus says it is time to arise and go from where they are. In the opening of chapter 18, the Word informs us that after He spoke these words they traveled over the ravine of the Kidron and entered a garden.  [Read more…]

Facebooktwittermail

Filed Under: Bible Studies for Life, Sunday School Lessons Tagged With: Bible: John

APRIL 4: THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS

March 31, 2021

By Michael Julian
Pastor, Macedonia Baptist Church, Kenton

Focal Passage: John 20:3-9,19-23,27-29 

Sunday School Lesson Bible Studies For LifeHappy Resurrection Day! Doesn’t it feel good to say those words of truth and reality? That the stone was rolled away, not so Jesus could escape, but that we should be let in to see the empty tomb. A crucified Jesus. An empty tomb. A risen Savior. Hallelujah!

Let us reason together over these events. The fear, pain, and confusion of crucifixion Friday still hovers above the followers of Jesus. Hopes have been dashed against the rocks. 

Potential deliverance from Rome slips into quiet nothingness. Then the uneasiness and silence of Saturday takes hold. A day of rest and peace is haunted by cries and screams and images locked into many consciences. Sunday is on its way, but no one seems to be truly prepared for what they will discover on this auspicious day.

John 20:3-9: Our entry point here follows Mary Magdalene fleeing from the empty tomb. She runs to Peter and John to inform them of this troubling development.  [Read more…]

Facebooktwittermail

Filed Under: Bible Studies for Life, Sunday School Lessons Tagged With: Bible: John

MARCH 28: THE DEATH OF JESUS

March 22, 2021

By Michael Julian
Pastor, Macedonia Baptist Church, Kenton

Focal Passage: John 19:8-11,16b-18,28-30 

Sunday School Lesson Bible Studies For LifeOur calendars tell us that next week is Easter Sunday. We have explored the grand subject of the nature of God. Here we are again exploring a grand subject, the death and resurrection of Jesus. This knowledge is seminal and critical to our faith. 

While we assert that forgiveness is now possible because of Jesus dying a substitutionary death, we must also peer further into the Holy of Holies. The possibility of forgiveness presupposes an oft forgotten or neglected antecedent. Forgiveness is necessary. We have offended a holy, righteous, sovereign God. 

Therefore, one who is perfect in righteousness entered the fray of humanity and lived in perfect obedience to the Father for my sake and yours. This entrance into a robe of frail, bleedable, bruisable, and breakable flesh culminated in His seemingly shameful death upon a cruel cross on a hill called Calvary.

John 19:8-11: Following the context, we know that Jesus has already been arrested, been before the priests, been scourged by the soldiers and dressed in a purple robe, and now is before Pilate again.  [Read more…]

Facebooktwittermail

Filed Under: Bible Studies for Life, Sunday School Lessons Tagged With: Bible: John

MAR. 7: THE NATURE OF GOD

March 1, 2021

By Michael Julian
Pastor, Macedonia Baptist Church, Kenton

Sunday School Lesson Bible Studies For LifeFocal Passage: John 14:8-11, 16-20, 23-26

What grander subject could we seek to explore and extract truth from other than the subject of the nature of God? And while the intricacies of Father, Son, and Spirit have baffled theologians for centuries, understand that God reveals Himself in knowable fashion. So, let us turn to the words of Jesus in John 14 to help us mine the depths of the nature of the revealed God.

John 14:8-11: “To know Jesus, the Son of God, is to know the Father.”

Jesus, having washed the disciples’ feet and having shared the intimacy of the Lord’s Supper with them, proceeds in His upper room discourse. The troubled hearts of the disciples led them to ask questions, and we have become the beneficiaries of their questions. [Read more…]

Facebooktwittermail

Filed Under: Bible Studies for Life, Sunday School Lessons Tagged With: Bible: John

FEB. 28: JOINING GOD’S WORK

February 23, 2021

By Eric Taylor
Pastor, Cedar Hill Baptist Church, Cedar Hill

Sunday School Lesson Bible Studies For LifeFocal Passage: John 15:1-8 

As we come to our final lesson in this quarter, we are reminded of Henry Blackaby’s challenge to “Find where God is working and join Him in it” (Experiencing God).

R. Kent Hughes wrote about our text, “The inward test is far more telling than the number of souls saved, people influenced, money collected, etc. It is possible to have [all] the outward signs without having the life of Christ within … . The fruit Christ looks for is His own life in us.” Which is why we must join in God’s work.

First, joining God’s work means that fruitfulness is proof of our union with Christ (John 15:1-3). There is a reason Jesus uses the phrases, “in Him,” or “in Me” multiple times. It is about our union with Christ. [Read more…]

Facebooktwittermail

Filed Under: Bible Studies for Life, Sunday School Lessons Tagged With: Bible: John

FEB. 7 – INTIMACY WITH JESUS

February 3, 2021

By Eric Taylor
Pastor, Cedar Hill Baptist Church, Cedar Hill

Sunday School Lesson Bible Studies For LifeFocal Passage: John 17:1-5, 21-26

There is no denying that Jesus is our ultimate example of what intimate praying to God the Father looks like. Jesus’ prayer life is the prayer life we should all aspire to. And while Jesus’ prayer in Matthew 6 and Luke 11 are often called, “The Lord’s Prayer,” this high priestly prayer of Jesus here in John 17, is truly The Lord’s Prayer.

It is His prayer for Himself, for His disciples, and for all believers throughout the ages who would come to believe on Him. So, in our text for this week, we see some of the things we should pray for. [Read more…]

Facebooktwittermail

Filed Under: Bible Studies for Life, Sunday School Lessons Tagged With: Bible: John

APR. 26: LOVE

April 20, 2020

By Tim Frank
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Carthage

Sunday School Lesson Bible Studies For LifeFocal Passage: John 15:9-14 

The subject of most conversations during the past weeks has been COVID-19 and the social distancing requirements that have been established to attempt to curb its escalation.  Prayerfully, in the coming weeks, we will begin to move back into closer social gatherings and reacquaint ourselves with friends, neighbors and our church families.  [Read more…]

Facebooktwittermail

Filed Under: Bible Studies for Life, Sunday School Lessons Tagged With: Bible: John

JAN. 26: WHY AM I SUFFERING?

January 20, 2020

By Tim Frank
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Carthage

Sunday School Lesson Bible Studies For LifeFocal Passage: Job 11:13-16; 23:8-12; John 9:1-3

Two lessons ago, we established that pain and suffering can ultimately be traced back to sin, specifically the original sin in the Garden of Eden. It is easy, then, to assume all pain and suffering comes from specific sin in a person’s life. This is the driving force behind the questions, “Why am I suffering? What have I done to deserve this?”

The Bible is filled with numerous examples of persons who endured suffering without a specific cause or result of sin. Sometimes suffering has a direct cause in sin; however it is wrong to assume that a person’s suffering is the result of something sinful he has done. The poster child for this is a man named Job. An entire book of the Bible is written to establish that not all suffering is a direct result of sin. [Read more…]

Facebooktwittermail

Filed Under: Bible Studies for Life, Sunday School Lessons Tagged With: Bible: Job, Bible: John

DEC. 29: AREN’T ALL RELIGIONS THE SAME?

December 23, 2019

By Tim Frank
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Carthage

Sunday School Lesson Bible Studies For LifeFocal Passage: Isaiah 44:6-11; John 14:5-7

A common expression says, “All rivers flow into the sea.” The meaning is clear. There are many streams, but, ultimately, they all end the same place. This thinking has been applied in the world to all religions being roads to the same destination — heaven. In fact, it is popular in today’s tolerant, all-inclusive culture to affirm coexistence and the belief that all religions are basically the same. [Read more…]

Facebooktwittermail

Filed Under: Bible Studies for Life, Sunday School Lessons Tagged With: Bible: Isaiah, Bible: John

DEC. 15: DOES ABSOLUTE TRUTH EXIST?

December 9, 2019

By Tim Frank
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Carthage

Sunday School Lesson Bible Studies For LifeFocal Passage: John 1:14-18; 8:30-32; 18:36-38

When my older daughter was in high school, one of her assignments was a debate on absolute truth. She had the side in favor of absolute truth.

In order to make the argument for absolute truth, she had to first establish there is one God who is Lord of all, maker of all and above all. Once established, the one true God is absolute truth and what He says is absolute truth. Apart from God, there is no absolute truth. In Him, there is absolute truth. [Read more…]

Facebooktwittermail

Filed Under: Bible Studies for Life, Sunday School Lessons Tagged With: Bible: John

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • Next Page »
Subscribe Classifieds Advertise About

Recent Posts

  • TENNESCENE: APR. 21
  • SOUTHERN BAPTIST EDITORS GATHER VIRTUALLY FOR ANNUAL MEETING
  • TBC CP GIFTS NEAR BUDGET GOAL FOR YEAR
  • FOR BIVOCATIONAL PASTORS, IT’S A BALANCING ACT
  • APRIL 25: REMEMBERED

Tags

abortion baptisms Baptist Collegiate Ministries Bible: Acts Bible: Luke Bible: Matthew Bible: Psalms Carson-Newman University childhood Christmas church revitalization Cooperative Program coronavirus COVID-19 Disaster Relief education ERLC evangelism family Five Objectives Golden Offering homosexuality IMB international LifeWay Lonnie Wilkey Lottie Moon missions money NAMB pastors prayer racial reconciliation Radio B&R Randy C. Davis SBC SBC annual meeting sports Summit TenneScene Union University volunteers WMU Woman's Missionary Union youth

Recent Posts

  • TENNESCENE: APR. 21
  • SOUTHERN BAPTIST EDITORS GATHER VIRTUALLY FOR ANNUAL MEETING
  • TBC CP GIFTS NEAR BUDGET GOAL FOR YEAR
  • FOR BIVOCATIONAL PASTORS, IT’S A BALANCING ACT
  • APRIL 25: REMEMBERED
  • APRIL 25: OUR COMMISSION

Tags

abortion baptisms Baptist Collegiate Ministries Bible: Acts Bible: Luke Bible: Matthew Bible: Psalms Carson-Newman University childhood Christmas church revitalization Cooperative Program coronavirus COVID-19 Disaster Relief education ERLC evangelism family Five Objectives Golden Offering homosexuality IMB international LifeWay Lonnie Wilkey Lottie Moon missions money NAMB pastors prayer racial reconciliation Radio B&R Randy C. Davis SBC SBC annual meeting sports Summit TenneScene Union University volunteers WMU Woman's Missionary Union youth

Categories

Bible Studies for Life Culture Explore the Bible Featured News Opinion Column Radio B&R SBC Sunday School Lessons Tennessee Uncategorized

Copyright © 2021 · Metro Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in