IDENTITY, COMMUNITY AND DESTINATION
10 A. M. WORSHIP SERVICE BETHEL BAPTIST CHURCH, HALF-WAY-TREE
JANUARY 18, 2026
John 14: 1-6 New International Version: Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, also believe in Me. My Father’s house has many rooms, if it was not so would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back to take you to be with me that you also will be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.
Thomas said to him, Lord we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way?
Jesus said I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father except through Me.
This Message preached at the 10.00 AM Worship Service on the Third Sunday of January 2026 explored who first Century members of the Early Church understood themselves to be. They were called Nazarenes by outsiders who identified them in terms of the past, recalling the Nazarite vow of separation. But in derision conventional wisdom was that it was improbable that anyone good could come out of Nazareth, the area in Galilee in which Jesus grew up.
Members of the early church were first called Christians in Antioch. Again, this was the identity given by outsiders. Again, probably in derision in that followers of Christ were a sect among Jews and not a recognized religion.
In contrast, first Century believers saw and called themselves ‘Followers of the Way’. Following the Way was their identity, their faith and support Community, and destination at the end of the Age. The exploration drew upon the Book of Acts; the writings of Paul especially Romans 12, 13 and 14; the book of Job, the oldest book in the Bible, and Genesis the first.
The Message ended on an unplanned and somewhat emotional note as the preacher raised the Chorus ‘At the Cross at the Cross, where I first saw the Light’ but struggled to sing it and as members of the congregation sang softly without musical accompaniment. The third Sunday of January marked seventy years of attending Bethel Baptist, which was a turning point in his journey and growth as a believer.
