By Michael Julian
Pastor, Macedonia Baptist Church, Kenton

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

Do 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…]

By Michael Julian
Pastor, Macedonia Baptist Church, Kenton

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

Happy 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…]

By Michael Julian
Pastor, Macedonia Baptist Church, Kenton

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

Our 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…]

By Michael Julian
Pastor, Macedonia Baptist Church, Kenton

Focal 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…]

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

Focal 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…]

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

Focal 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…]

By Tim Frank
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Carthage

Focal 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…]

By Tim Frank
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Carthage

Focal 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…]