Bartimaeus Baptist Temple

Are you ready for Sunday? I am! The time we get to spend together is precious to me every week. It’s even better when we get to share a meal and talk. It’s time for our Fifth Sunday Fellowship. As is our custom, we’ll forgo the Sunday school segment to leave more time for the fellowship. We also take this opportunity for our communion ceremony.

For my part, I’ll try to keep it a little shorter this week. We will finish up John, Chapter 12 with verses 44-50. This is the last public address of the crowds by Jesus that John records. Jesus briefly summarizes everything that He has been teaching throughout his ministry. Exactly when and where this takes place isn’t given, but it is reasonable to think that he might have made this speech from the temple. John says that he “cried out”. In other words, He made sure everyone there would hear Him. Let us hear Him too!

See you there. Love y’all.

It’s that time again already, and I’m ready to see you at church! It’ll be good to have Cathy back with us. Maybe we’ll have everyone there. Bring a friend and we’ll have more!

Our study continues with John 12:12-19. We are now into the final week before Jesus will be crucified. All of the writers cover this period as it is central to the Christian message, but John again provides us with detail that the others did not record. I look forward to covering the next few chapters as Jesus gives his final instructions before His time comes. But I’m getting a little ahead of our story.

This is the day following the dinner at which Mary, sister of Martha and Lazarus, anointed Jesus with the expensive perfume. When others criticized her , Jesus defended her action and made a statement that surely must have seemed strange at the time, “Let her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of My burial.” They did not yet understand how soon that would come, or what would happen next.

We’re told that a crowd began to gather, wanting to see Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead the last time He was in town. Jesus now sets out for Jerusalem, and he gets quite a reception. People would have been there from all over the land of Israel for the Passover. Many of them would have come from areas where Jesus performed His miracles, and they were praising Him for what He had done. John specifically mentions the raising of Lazarus as inspiring the crowd.

Many churches celebrate this event as Palm Sunday. The people were waving palm branches and spreading their coats in the road as he came into town. This was a way of welcoming royalty. They shouted, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.” These words were taken from Psalm 118;25-26 and were sung by the temple choir at Passover. They spoke of the coming messiah. How soon they would seem to forget.

But Jesus knew what He was doing, and what would come of it. The crowd has always been fickle. The question for us is this. Will we follow the crowd, or will we follow Jesus? He went to the cross so that we can still say, Blessed is He who comes in the name of The Lord!”

Come, join us!

Blessings to you all. There’s a festive mood in the air as we approach the Independence Day celebration this week. There is much that should concern us about the state of our nation, but we have much to celebrate. There’s a reason people want to come here. with all of our challenges, we remain a beacon of hope and freedom. We should remember that the reasons this is true are grounded in our Christian heritage.

But there is only one source for true freedom. That freedom is available to all, wherever in the world they may live. It is the freedom that comes through the family of God. It has been purchased for us by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has power over life and death.

This week, we’ll be in John, Chapter 11. Of the three accounts of Jesus raising the dead given to us by the gospel writers, this is probably the best known. It’s the most spectacular, and the only one where we have the name of the one who was raised. His name is Lazarus.

Throughout his account, John has been showing us who Jesus is by highlighting illustrative miracles and the teaching that follows each of them. This is not the first resurrection that Jesus performed, but it is the only one that John records,. By waiting until Lazarus had been dead four days, Jesus removed any alternative explanation for his revivification. Only the power of God can do this!

i will focus on Jesus’ conversation with Martha, Lazarus’ sister, when He arrives at Bethany, where Lazarus and his sisters lived. He says, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26) This is the central question of our faith. If we do not believe this, we do not believe Him and we are cut off from the source of life.

Even after seeing what Jesus did, many did not believe, and actually plotted to kill both Jesus and Lazarus. They would eventually succeed with Jesus, but it didn’t work out quite the way they planned. That is why we are here today, still asking the question, “Do you believe this?” Many will not. I pray that you are not one of them.

Believe me when I say I want to see you in church tomorrow.

Love y’all!

Larry

It’s getting hot! But you can stay cool with us on Sunday as we gather to worship our Lord. We got a bit of a late start this week, but everyone made it eventually and we had a good time of sharing.

I am ready for next week and eagerly await the opportunity to see you there! 🙂 I’ll pick up where we left off, moving into the 10th chapter of John.  Jesus is still speaking after he has healed the man born blind and revealed to him Who it is who has don it.  This is His answer to the challenge of the Pharisees, “we are not blind too, are we?”  Jesus now uses a well understood metaphor from prophecy to declare again who He is.  He is the Good Shepherd.

Love y’all!

Larry

I enjoyed our time together last Sunday. I hope you did too. I only wish we all could have been there, but there will be other opportunities, Lord willing.

This Sunday, we’ll go back to our study of John with Chapter 9. This passage troubled me for many years. It’s the story of the blind man that Jesus healed by putting clay on his eyes and sending him to the Pool of Siloam to wash. The disciples wanted to know whose sin caused this man to be blind, his or his parents’. It was Jesus reply that troubled me, “this was so that the works of God might be manifested in him.”

It seemed so unfair. This man was blind all of his life so that Jesus could have a moment? My own resentment surfaced when I thought about it. I felt somehow wronged by God, too. But my perspective has changed over the years. As I draw closer to the Lord and see His work in my life, i grow to love Him more. Now I look at Jesus’ words and take them as if they were spoken of me, and I rejoice! In my case, those works of God may not include my own healing, but He can use me to heal others. It is the spiritual healing that we all need. The physical would be nice, but what happens to this cracked old clay jar is of no real importance. I have an eternity to look forward to. Can you see it? Has He opened your eyes?

This man became a testimony to the religious leaders of his time, illustrating the words that Jesus had been speaking to them all along. Just as He brought light to the eyes of this blind man, He has brought light to the world. We do not know his name, but he is still witnessing to the world of the power and purpose of our Lord through John’s record. Was not such an honor worth a few years of blindness? If you have seen the light, someday you may meet him. I am certain that he will tell you, “absolutely, yes!”

This passage used to make me angry, but now it brings me joy. I look forward to sharing it with you on Sunday. See you there! 🙂

Larry