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: Isaiah 59:1-13 

Isaiah 59:1-5: Having begun with the nature of God and then having moved to the existence and purpose of man, this next essential follows suit. What went wrong? How did man, created by God with a purpose and a divine stewardship, find himself wrecked, ruined, and ravaged by sin?

The question is both haunting and daunting. Haunting because man’s sin now separates him from his Creator. Disobedience to the Creator’s word introduced the pervasive cancer of sin. 

All men suffer this reality. And remember, man encompasses male and female. But it is also daunting because man stands unable to reconcile himself to his God. Hopelessness abounds. Separation and isolation grate upon the heart and mind. But, praise be to God there is a remedy.  [Read more…]

By Michael Julian
Pastor, Macedonia Baptist Church, Kenton

Focal Passage: Genesis 1:1-5,26-31 

We are journeying through a study on the essentials of Christianity. We began last week where all things begin, with God. The logical follow up to this revelation is the existence of humanity. How did we arrive on this earth? Where did this earth come from? What does it mean to be human? Do we have a divine purpose?

Genesis 1:1-5: The first verse of the Bible sets the tone for everything that follows. “In the beginning God created,” smacks us right in the face. Interestingly, the last book of the Bible repeats in chapter 4 that God created all things, and because of His will they existed and were created. This means that God created all things with a purpose in mind. We are not an accident, and neither is this universe a random and fortunate gathering of objects into a sustainable solar system.

God decided by His sovereign will to create all things. This truth instills hope and meaning into the life of every person. Unfortunately, so many cover up this truth. Their unbelieving minds are blinded by the god of this age that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.  [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: 1 Corinthians 12:12-24

Many years ago, there was a mass-marketing push to get people to drink more milk. Part of the push contained an ad campaign with the catchy phrase, “Milk, it does a body good.” The obvious connotation was that drinking milk is good for the health of one’s body.

Of course, a popular metaphor in the Bible for the local New Testament church is that of the human body, with every member in the church contributing as they do their part. In our text for this week, the Apostle Paul uses this kind of language to remind a divided Corinthian church that their success as a congregation depended on their health, and that health is seen in their unity in diversity. [Read more…]

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

Focal Passage: Daniel 9:1-7; 17-19 

By the time one arrives at Daniel 9, the prophet is most likely in his mid-eighties. He is studying the words of Jeremiah, and is moved to prayer for the people of God.

And what follows is one of the greatest prayers in the Bible, as Daniel enters a period of “prayer and supplications” which included “fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.” What we have is a sound example of what a life looks like that seeks to maintain a focus on the Lord Jesus.

First, we focus on spiritual disciplines. The first thing Daniel did is what we should do. We need to set our “face toward the Lord God” (Daniel 9:3). It is a picture of complete focus. When King Jehoshaphat learned of enemy forces preparing to attack the people of Judah in Jerusalem, the Bible tells us that the King “set himself to seek the LORD” (II Chronicles 20:4). [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 Eric Taylor
Pastor, Cedar Hill Baptist Church, Cedar Hill

Focal Passage: Psalm 119:17-24

In May of 2010, the Kimyal people of West Papua, Indonesia received the first ever copies of the New Testament in their own language.

If you have never watched the actual video of the people receiving the Word of God, it is worth your time. I was convicted at how the people were genuinely overcome with emotion as they saw those copies of God’s Word being unloaded from a plane. There was dancing, shouting, and literal tears of joy over the long-awaited arrival of the Word of God in their heart language.

In our text for this week, I see a similar kind of emotion by the psalmist as he describes his desire for the Word of God to the God of the Word. [Read more…]