Welcome to Covenant of Hope Ministries and our Sunday sermon. I am Rev. Laura A. Neff. This ministry shares the Word of God, the Spirit of Christ Jesus. Our ministry was created with twelve people around this world back in 2008. Each of us shares God’s Word in ways He guides us to utilize. We wish only that God’s truth will be shared within His words as brought to us by the Spirit as it fills my heart, mind, and soul to be shared with my hands, but with His words alone.
You will find us in the following location: http://www.covenantofhopeministries.blogspot.com
Rev. Laura’s other sites: Facebook & Blogspot & Twitter & LinkedIn
Prayer List: We have many on our prayer list. Some wish to remain anonymous, and others only wish to have their first names mentioned. Our prayer list grows or changes every week. This is our current list.
- Please continue to pray for Elder Cal Jennings and his health issues, which are numerous. He has been having issues with his pain, vision, and memory.
- Please also pray for Cal’s Aunt and Uncle, Billy and Ila.
- Please pray for my son and daughter-in-law as her father fights cancer for the fifth time. Pray also for my daughter-in-law’s entire family as they soldier on through this terrible disease her father is suffering from. May the Lord bless them with patience and courage in these darkened days.
- Please pray for a friend of our ministry, Dena, and her family, as they continue to struggle daily.
- Pray for my daughter, my eldest child, as she makes some tough decisions about her career.
- Pray for my youngest son as he and his fiancée ford through the worries and complications of life and preparing for a life together.
- Pray that a dear friend gets good news in the coming weeks regarding their healing process going well.
- Pray that my niece and nephew Joy and Anthony are comforted as they mourn the death of her grandmother, who passed away on Thursday.
- We continue to be ever watchful in regard to the battle for Ukraine on the other side of the world. We pray for all those who are affected by the terrible things going on there. We mourn for the families and the massive loss of life. We also pray for everything that is affected as a result of the economic issues that are.
- Pray for a friend of a friend whose daughter Everleigh lost her battle with Leukemia yesterday.
- Be thankful for each day we live as we do not know what tomorrow brings.
- Pray for all of our outreach ministries with Pastor Stephen Okoth, Pastor Robert Nganwa, Pastor Simon Peter Javaji, Rev. Lisa Tyler, and all the others who have joined us.
- Pray for our nations that the voice of God be heard through the Spirit.
- Pray for our friends and families that their tomorrows bring blessings and pray our own be the same.
- Pray for those who are jobless, homeless, no matter what might have ended up causing either of those. Pray that providence would find them and ease the suffering.
- Pray for those suffering as a result of the terrors that have occurred just this past week around this world.
- Pray for our sick and wounded that they may heal.
- Pray that truth is revealed where falsehoods have been shared around this world.
Prayer: Father in heaven, this is our prayer for today. We continue to pray for the ones suffering as a result of shootings and unrest around this world. We pray for the citizens of Ukraine who are fighting for their sovereignty and their freedom. We pray for those who have lost their lives on all sides of this chaos. We pray for those who have been sick, or are in mourning for family members like Rev. Lisa Tyler’s family and Jeff Taylor’s family who just celebrated the life of his father, who died last week from cancer. We continue to keep Elder Cal Jennings in our prayers as well. We pray for our friend Dena who has been suffering with a grave illness and epilepsy for far too long. For each of these we pray in Your Holy Name, through our Savior Jesus Christ, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, Amen and so it shall be.
Opening Song: We Believe ~ Newsboys https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjZ01FcK0yk
Sermon: As we did last Sunday, we are exploring a single chapter in the Gospels. Today we are working with the Gospel of John the Beloved chapter 11. We will divide the discussion just as Scripture would do so. Let us begin with the moment Jesus learned that His dear friend and colleague Lazarus had died.
John 11:1-16 KJV The Death of Lazarus
Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.
(It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.)
Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.
When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.
Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.
When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was.
Then after that saith he to his disciples, Let us go into Judaea again.
His disciples say unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee; and goest thou thither again?
Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world.
But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.
These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.
Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well.
Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep.
Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.
And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him.
Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellowdisciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him.
These first sixteen verses describe a moment of amazing foretelling of the future, near future, for Jesus, the Apostles, and Disciples as well as friends and family. If you recall, there were a lot of prophecies made in the days of the Old Testament. Well, in the case of Lazarus, we are seeing a somewhat more modern view of prophecy and what will be fulfilled within that prophecy, how it will be managed, and what it will mean to the believers in Christ then, now, and in the future yet to be. This is the reason why there was so much disbelief in the power of God and God’s Word, our Savior Jesus Christ, and yet belief was there as well. When it was foretold that Jesus would be born, all the way back in the days of Moses, and through to David who was promised that there would come a seed from his line that would bring God’s people home to a New Jerusalem, a New Kingdom, that will be built. There are no ifs or maybes involved in the prophecy and the fulfillment of that prophecy. Let’s continue with the story of Lazarus.
John 11:17-37 KJV – Jesus Comforts Martha and Mary
Then
when Jesus came, he found that he had lain in the grave four days
already.
Now Bethany was nigh unto Jerusalem, about fifteen furlongs off:
And many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning
their brother.
Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met
him: but Mary sat still in the house.
Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother
had not died.
But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will
give it thee.
Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise
again.
Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the
resurrection at the last day.
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and
the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall
never die. Believest thou this?
She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the
Son of God, which should come into the world.
And when she had so said, she went her way, and called Mary her sister secretly, saying, The Master is come, and calleth for thee. As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly, and came unto him.
Now Jesus was
not yet come into the town, but was in that place where Martha met him.
The Jews then which were with her in the house, and comforted her, when they
saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out, followed her, saying, She
goeth unto the grave to weep there. Then when Mary was come where Jesus was,
and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst
been here, my brother had not died.
When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with
her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled,
And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto
him, Lord, come and see.
Jesus wept.
Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him!
And some of them said, Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind,
have caused that even this man should not have died?
Unbelief is rampant in this world. Disbelief is even more so. We see it easily enough as we make our way through life as it is today. Back in the day when Jesus walked this earth, unless the people saw it with their own eyes, they rarely believed in anything. This is yet another sticking point God has with humanity. Believing and having faith in God has nothing to do with eyesight. Yet, here we are, even today, in a society that must see it to believe it, whatever it is. The citizens of earth want it proven to exist, to have been done, before they’ll buy into anything. That’s one of the biggest hurdles humanity has. Now, let’s continue with the Word. Jesus wept, and those surrounding the tomb saw this and were amazed at the emotion, at the simpleness of this one action. Tears, from our Savior, for a man dead in his grave. However, it is what happens next that signs the death warrant of our Lord and Savior. Let’s continue with the story.
John 11:38-44 KJV – Jesus Raises Lazarus
Jesus
therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a
stone lay upon it.
Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the
sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh:
for he hath been dead four days.
Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if
thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?
Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid.
And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father,
I thank thee that thou hast heard me.
And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand
by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.
And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.
And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes:
and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.
Again we see that unbelief, that disbelief in the fact that God had sent Jesus to take away the sins of the world and to prove just how mighty and miraculous God would be. Jesus willingly came to earth as an infant child to begin the process of transformation for all of those who believe in God the Father, the Creator of this earth. Here he is proving the power of God’s Word in full view of those who fail to understand the magnitude of just that. Let’s complete the view of this chapter with these next verses in the Gospel as written by John the Beloved.
John
11:45-57 KJV – The Plot to Kill Jesus
Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which
Jesus did, believed on him.
But some of them went their ways to the Pharisees, and told them what things
Jesus had done.
Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council and said, “What do
we? for this man doeth many miracles.
If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall
come and take away both our place and our nation.
And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said
unto them, Ye know nothing at all.
Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the
people, and that the whole nation perish not.
And this spake he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he
prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation:
And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one
the children of God that were scattered abroad.
Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death.
Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the Jews; but went thence unto a
country near to the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim, and there continued
with his disciples.
And the Jews Passover was nigh at hand and many went out of the country up to
Jerusalem before the Passover to themselves, as they stood in the temple. What
think ye, that he will not come to the feast?
Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a commandment that, if
any man knew where he were, he should shew it, that they might take him.
Jesus was a wanted man, and He knew it. However, He wasn’t about to start the final march on their time, but in God’s time. The man knew well that fear-filled Pharisees and priests wanted the glory of God’s temple all to themselves, much like those in the Old Testament had been, these too were corrupt and plotting to destroy any potential toward having anyone be higher than they would be in the hierarchy of Jewish traditions. This being Palm Sunday, there is a great deal to learn just in this single chapter of the Gospel of John the beloved. There is a great deal more to come with the celebration of Passover week, now known to culminate in Easter, for Christians everywhere on this earth. Now, that’s something to think about as we pray in the prayer that Jesus taught us.
Our Father, which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the
kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
(Matthew 6:9-13)
Closing Song: Your Great Name https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMcY_aqZEtw
~ Shalom ~
Rev. Laura A. Neff
Elder Calvin Jennings
Covenant of Hope Ministries Main Site: http://www.covenantofhopeministries.blogspot.com
Scripture Excerpts: The New Open Bible Study Edition: Copyright © 1990: Thomas Nelson Publishers, Inc.
Scripture Excerpts: Holy Bible: Copyright © 1982: E. E. Gaddy and Associates, Inc.
Scripture Excerpts: Holy Bible: Copyright ©circa 1890-1910: International Bible Press, The John C. Winston Co.; Philadelphia, PA, USA
Sermon or Study Copyright © 2022 http://www.covenantofhopeministries.blogspot.com
Our mission for Covenant of Hope Ministries is not to
exploit fear, but to conquer it and overcome all that is
created through fear together as the bringers of the
light of Jesus found in the midst of darkness.
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