By Scott Brown
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Waverly

Focal Passage: Luke 22:41-53 

In those last few precious moments before His arrest, Jesus seeks out quiet time with the Father. As He prays in the garden, we get a powerful glimpse at His humanity through His agony. 

Knowing perfectly and completely every iota of suffering and shame that awaited Him, He is not looking forward to the cup of wrath that awaits Him. 

“If there is any other way, any other option, let’s do that.” We might think of Him praying something like that. It is what He prays next that is so amazing. “Nevertheless, not my will, but Yours, be done.” 

His whole life has led to this moment, yet we see Jesus in the garden wrestling with what comes next. He surrenders Himself entirely to the Father’s will.  [Read more…]

By Scott Brown
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Waverly

Focal Passage: Luke 22:7-20 

This is a special moment of calm before the storm that is to come in the life of Jesus and the disciples. Jesus, the true Passover Lamb, shares the Passover meal with the disciples. 

This Passover meal is what we now call The Last Supper. Each time that believers gather and celebrate communion, they are pointing back to this meal and the picture it paints of our salvation and our common union in Christ. 

When we gather for communion it draws our hearts to do three things: look back, look in and look ahead. Celebrating the Lord’s Supper causes us to look back at the meaning of this Passover meal. 

We are told the bread is His body, broken for us. The wine is His blood, spilled out for us. Everything about the elements and the action of this ordinance brings us back to the gospel. We look back and meditate on the wonder of our sins being passed over because of the blood of Jesus.  [Read more…]

By Scott Brown
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Waverly

Focal Passage: Luke 20:9-19 

Jesus used parables to both frustrate and to inform. This story does both. The frustration of the religious leaders has now reached a fever pitch and they are almost incessantly confronting Him, trying to find any reason to condemn Him. 

In the midst of this, Jesus tells the story of a vineyard owner who leased out His vineyard to others. This man started the vineyard. It was his blood, sweat, and tears that went in to planting the vineyard. 

He went away and leased the vineyard to others who would continue his work. Eventually he sends servants to collect the fruit he is owed from the labor. The wicked men refuse to pay.  [Read more…]

By Scott Brown
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Waverly

Focal Passage: Luke 19:1-10 

The story of Zacchaeus is a powerful reminder that no one is too far gone for the grace of God. His name means, “righteous one.” This is very interesting when you think about the man we meet in this chapter.

Perhaps his parents had different plans, more righteous hopes for him than the life he had chosen. He is a chief tax collector, one who not only betrays his people by collecting exorbitant taxes for the Roman government but (aided by the threats of Rome) extorts a great deal extra from them and also supervises others who do the same.

This is not a righteous man but one who steals from his own people and profits off their pain. Luke tells us he was a short man. He is noticeably shorter than others.  [Read more…]

By Scott Brown
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Waverly

Focal Passage: Luke 24:1-12 

Reading this text, it is quite the emotional rollercoaster. In these few verses we see multiple strong feelings. The women are grief stricken, having seen the Lord crucified and the hope they had crushed. 

As they came to mourn and to honor Him, they find the stone rolled away and the tomb empty. Their grief is now mingled with confusion. Did someone take the body? Who would do such a horrible thing? Their confusion turns to terror when they see two men in dazzling clothes who announce that He is risen. He is risen! Can you believe it? 

They must have been awestricken in that moment. As they bow down in terror before these men, they hear this incredible announcement. The King is risen! A great emotional paradigm shift turned them from grief and hopelessness to overjoy and excitement in an instant. He is alive!  [Read more…]

By Scott Brown
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Waverly

Focal Passage: Luke 19:29-40 

This is an amazing passage displaying such peace in God’s sovereignty ahead of such a painful week for our Lord. It displays such peace in the events of His entry. Jesus tells them exactly where to go and what they will see as a colt is tied up awaiting them. 

This is an unbroken colt which has never been ridden yet it will gently and peaceably march the Savior into Jerusalem without an ounce of rebellion. The disciples go and they find everything exactly as Jesus told them. 

Seeing what would seem like two men stealing the donkey, the owner likely asks what they are doing. They reply no more and no less exactly as they were told, “The Lord needs it.” The owner does not fight or shout but sends them on their way with the colt. 

Jesus comes into Jerusalem on the back of this donkey, entering as a royal processional, as the larger group of disciples praise Him and cry out from the Messianic Psalm 118, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord.” They, unprompted, begin laying down palm leaves in front of Him as he rides into their praise.  [Read more…]

By Scott Brown
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Waverly

Focal Passage: Luke 18:9-17 

James reminds us that, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” This is a story of two very different men who come before God in prayer. Those listening would immediately recognize the characters, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 

Pharisees were respected with tax collectors being despised in Jewish society. The tax collector prays with humility, knowing that he is a wretched sinner desperate for mercy and hopeless without grace. He would not even look up but cries out to God for mercy. 

The Pharisee stands alone and boasts before God and man the wonders of his own greatness. He was using public prayer as a brag sheet to make sure everyone knew how spiritual he was, though he wasn’t at all. He boasts of all the great things he has done for God and is even praising God that he is better than so many others, even the tax collector. Of the two, it is surprising which one truly understood prayer. [Read more…]

By Scott Brown
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Waverly

Focal Passage: Luke 15:20-32 

The prodigal son, as you likely already know, had shamed his father and broken that relationship horribly for the sake of getting his inheritance early and living his own way. Such an act as this younger son did would have been absolutely reprehensible to even consider. The father gave him his portion of what would rightfully be his one day.

 Living up to the name of this parable, this “prodigal son” wastes all of it rather quickly on shameful living. A famine comes upon the land, forcing him to become a slave to another man not only feeding pigs but being jealous of how well they ate. This man could hardly sink lower. Formerly a Jewish man of prominent family name, he is now a servant to the pigs. 

This is exactly what he deserved. Finally seeing his sin and its effects clearly, he returns home in hopes that his father would at least let him be a servant in the household. He knows he is no longer worthy of being called son but hopes to have any relationship with his father, even if it is only as master. You know the story, the father runs to him and joyfully restores him to sonship. This something he could never deserve, grace.  [Read more…]

By Scott Brown
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Waverly

Focal Passage: Luke 10:25-37 

An expert in the law, testing Jesus, began questioning Him about the law. This wasn’t the inquisitive questioning of a heartfelt seeker but an arrogant questioning seeking only to trap Jesus through cross examination. This lawyer sums up the law rightly with the Great Commandment. He seems to be missing the point, though.

A consuming love for God produces a love of others without preconditions because of being so greatly loved by God. Knowing that He should love God and neighbor, he wants to know who qualifies as his neighbor. Who must he love and who can he hate? What I love about Jesus’ response is that while this scribe is asking what kind of person his neighbor is, Jesus responds by showing what kind of neighbor he himself should be. [Read more…]

By Russ Wilkins
Dir. of Missions, Shiloh Baptist Assoc., Adamsville

Focal Passage: Luke 9:18-27 

For years in our country, it was fairly easy, if not advantageous to be a Christian. Christians could get by with a “casual” relationship concerning Jesus and there would seem to be no consequences. Being a moral church member was “good enough.”

If you owned a local business, you were a “good guy”, went to church every Sunday, you may even become a deacon. But now, things have reversed. Showing up at church may cost you. People in the community may even consider you as judgmental or a bigot simply because you go to church. Now, we have come to a point where we have to ask ourselves if it is worth it to go to church. Some of the numbers seem to suggest many do not think it is worth it. [Read more…]