Matthew….Mark….Luke….John – the four gospels that have been our primary means of learning about the savior ever since He came, died and rose again.  Do you understand them?  Have you read them all?  Do you know the difference between them?

Matthew, Mark and Luke are known as “synoptic gospels” because they are all very similar in content, with minor variations.  The gospel of John is very different and in a sense “complements” the synoptics.  Last week, we learned about John the Apostle, the son of Zebedee and how the Scriptures described him.  This Sunday we will examine the gospel of John itself, comparing its content, message and style with the synoptic gospels.  Many of you have probably never had the chance to the see this before, so it may be a great benefit to you.

The notes for the message are attached below, hope to see you Sunday!

Pew Notes for Uniqueness of John’s Gospel

¹¹ And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, ¹² so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. ¹³ Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” ¹⁴ Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. ¹⁵ But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” ¹⁶ And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered allof them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. ¹⁷ And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. ¹⁸ Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. ¹⁹ And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. ²⁰ So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.

January 9, 2013 – Acts 19, 11-20 Book Burning at Ephesus, Blanks

It is time for Disciple Now 2013.  Dates are February 15th – 17th.  We are again partnering with New Salem Baptist Church and some others to make this the best DNOW weekend we’ve ever had.  Our DNOW pastor  will be George Ross, from Lifepointe Baptist Church in Senatobia.  Bro. Ross is also the church planting expert for the MBCB.  His heart is in missions and that’s where I want us to focus this year in the youth ministry. Our worship will be lead by the Michael Reid Band. On February 15th, we will meet at New Salem at 5:30 p.m.  for our Friday night session.  We will then transport our youth to their sponsor homes for the night.  On Saturday, we will transport them back to New Salem for the Saturday session.  The weekend will end on Sunday morning after Sunday School at Woodland Baptist. This year our church will be providing the Saturday supper for the entire DNOW participants.  We will be providing information for those who would like to help with the supper at a later time. Sign up for DNOW has already begun and will end on January 23rd.  Cost is $25.00 which covers study materials and a t-shirt.  Please encourage your youth to get signed up so they don’t miss this awesome weekend.

Your Servant,

Brad Wright

This Sunday we begin our exposition of the gospel of John, a.k.a. the “one who Jesus loved.”  We will begin with a couple of Sundays of introductory information as we did with Galatians to build a solid foundation on which to build our understanding of the gospel.  Hopefully when we are finished with John’s gospel you will understand it and use it more than you ever have in your own walk of faith and in the lives of others.

John 20:30-31 – ³⁰ Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; ³¹ but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Pew Notes for John 1, The Preincarnate Christ, Who was John?

¹¹ And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, ¹² so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. ¹³ Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” ¹⁴ Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. ¹⁵ But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” ¹⁶ And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered allof them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. ¹⁷ And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. ¹⁸ Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. ¹⁹ And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. ²⁰ So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.

January 9, 2013 – Acts 19, 11-20 Book Burning at Ephesus, Blanks