​Philip and Bartholomew were Apostles of Jesus. They were also real people—just like us. And just like us, Jesus loved them so much that He received them just as they were. But Jesus loves us too much to leave us as we are. He fined-tunes, harnesses, and focuses the best parts of our personalities while He alters, transforms, and changes those parts of us that need His touch.

As we continue considering the unlikely ones that Jesus chose to be His Apostles, we turn our attention to Philip and Bartholomew. While scripture has more to say about Philip than Bartholomew, they are paired in the snapshots we studied from the Gospel of John. 

Watch our study as we examine the responses of these men when Jesus asked them to do something that seemed impossible. 

​Before meeting Jesus, Mary Magdalene was tormented by seven demons. For years, she experienced perpetual agony with no earthly remedy. But Mary encountered a Man who was more than just a man. She met Jesus, Who changed her life forever.

Jesus rescued Mary from demonic possession and affliction and set her free. And with her freedom, she chose to follow and serve Jesus wholeheartedly. Out of gratefulness for His grace, Mary supported, served, and stood by Jesus until the end. She was one of the few disciples present at the foot of the cross, willing to risk her life and bear the shame for the name of the One who set her free. No wonder Satan desired to hold her down demonically and hold her back from the strength and beauty that was found in her once she was set free!

Her life and her soul were saved by Jesus. Her heart was set free to serve Him courageously and faithfully. She was the first to see Jesus after His resurrection. After all, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead had saved her. And it’s that same power and Person we share with Mary to serve Jesus courageously and faithfully into eternity. He is risen! He is risen indeed!

​For the past several Sundays, we’ve been looking at portraits of the people Jesus chose to be His followers. They were the unlikely ones—real people with failures and flaws who encountered Jesus and were impacted by His ministry. They were compelled to follow Him.

Then, the cross happened. Their hopes and dreams of Jesus being their Messiah were dashed. Had they gotten it wrong? If He was the Messiah, why was He executed?

But the cross was not the end of Jesus. He didn’t just lay His life down but had the power to take it up again. And yet, none of His disciples fully grasped what this meant initially—including one follower in the section of Scripture we studied on Sunday. Watch our study from Resurrection Sunday as we consider Mary Magdalene’s interaction with the risen Jesus.

​Pontius Pilate would have been intrigued to hear that Jesus was calling Himself the King of the Jews—or at least that was what the Jewish religious rulers were counting on. 

They hoped the claim would cause Pilate to do what they wanted. Of course, they would have handled the matter by stoning Jesus, but only the Romans could carry out capital punishment. They perfected it through crucifixion—a brutal, agonizing, and excruciating slow death. 

God knew what His people would do when they rejected His Son. And He knew exactly how the Romans would execute Him. In fact, this was all recorded hundreds of years before in Psalm 22, Zechariah 12, and Isaiah 53. Watch our Good Friday service as we reflect on Jesus—the Son of God.

​The only people that the Jews in Jesus’ time hated more than the Romans were tax collectors. They extorted additional money from their own people, often by force and threats of violence. Zacchaeus wasn’t just a tax collector–he was a chief tax collector who was rich. 

So it’s not difficult to imagine how much contempt the people of Jericho would have for this man as they looked down on him—if they looked at him at all. And yet, Jesus would look up to him. After climbing a tree to get a better view of Jesus, Jesus would seek out Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector, and a sinner, but a person who desperately wanted to be rescued from his sin. 

As Zacchaeus spent time with Jesus, something happened in his heart. There was a change, a transformation. Jesus tells us why—“Today salvation has come to this house…” (Luke 19:9). Just like Abraham, Zacchaeus was saved by grace through faith. 

That’s why Jesus came. He summarized His entire ministry this way: “…the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” He sees you. He sees your soul, and despite your sinfulness, He desires to make your heart His home, cleaning it from sin and changing it forever. Call out to Him—He wants to be with you!

​Palm Sunday commemorates the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into the city of Jerusalem. It wasn’t necessarily how Jesus entered the city (riding on a donkey) that made it a triumph, but how He allowed Himself to be publicly hailed as the Messiah. When Jesus saw the city, He wept over it (Luke 19:41-44) because the people didn’t realize that God was coming to them, making their salvation possible.

Just before the Triumphal Entry, Jesus interacted with a man everybody would have counted out. In their conversation, we hear directly from Jesus why He came: to seek and to save the lost.

Watch our study of Luke 19:1-10 as we consider when the Son of Man sought out and saved a man named Zacchaeus. 

​James and John had the tendency to be really angry. They were often zealous without a moral compass, as well as sinfully and selfishly ambitious. Their nickname, “Sons of Thunder” was a perfect fit.

After each thunderclap, Jesus didn’t toss them out of the group but called them to Himself. He lovingly rebuked, corrected, and taught them about ministry. Because of their fellowship with Jesus, James and John were radically transformed. As their eyes were opened to what ministry looks like, they saw the good work of The Good Shepherd.

Ministry does not look like frying your enemy’s faces off (John 9:54), being zealously angry all the time (Mark 9:38), or scheming for personal gain (Matthew 20:21). Because they drew near to Jesus, James and John came to understand that Jesus came to save lives, not to destroy lives. They saw that Jesus came to serve, not to be served. They observed that The Good Shepherd came to lay His life down so that others may live. 

James and John learned all this as Jesus loved and received them just as they were. But we know that Jesus loves us too much to leave us as He finds us. As He calls us to be with Him, He transforms us, too. Our zeal and ambition can be fantastic and fruitful qualities only when harnessed and focussed by Jesus so that our motives for ministry match The Good Shepherd.