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Before Pilate - John 18:28-40 By Pastor Lee Hemen January 31, 2016 I hated it when my mother would drag us around to our relatives and then want us to show something off to them just so she could brag about it. I know she did it because she was proud of us but as a child it seem kind of, well, exploitive. No one likes to be used as a trophy or as a means to an end, whatever that may be. How would like to be dragged from one place to another simply to be put on display and illegally tried? We are all angered when we find out that someone has been tried, held captive, or used as a human guinea pig. Few of us would like these prospects yet Jesus suffered these indignities. And now we find him dragged before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor in charge of the occupation of his nation and people. Sadly, it was his own people who were using him as a means to an end, as a scapegoat for their own problems. Let's find out what happens when Jesus is brought before Pilate… READ: John ...

Before Annas - John 18:14-24 By Pastor Lee Hemen January 17, 2016 Politics for some is just another dirty word. The saying goes never discuss religion or politics with someone else if you want to be on good terms with them. Nothing under the sun is new and we discover that the stench of politics and its intrigue was just as perverse during Jesus' day as it is today. And we find that so was personal betrayal. Have you ever had someone come to you and say they are speaking for someone else? I have. Here in John's gospel we find Jesus being dragged from one person to the next and the first one he is forced to come before was "Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year." Make no mistake, Annas was still the power behind the scenes. Let's discover what happened and what it means for our lives this morning… READ: John 18:14-24 Throughout history and throughout Scripture we discover that things do not change much at the heart of the human con...

The Victory! - Mark 16:1-14 By Pastor Lee Hemen April 5, 2015 Victory can come in many forms in our lives. It could be getting good grades, making a promotion at work, or retiring in comfort and contentment. Parents see victories in their children all the time. Perhaps one of the greatest victories that were totally unexpected happened during the 1980 Winter Olympics when the USA hockey team beat Russia at Lake Placid, New York. It was called "The Miracle on Ice" for a reason because no one expected it to happen since Team USA had been badly beaten by the Russians earlier in the year. Today's verses in Mark show us a different kind of victory. It is one that does not give out gold medals, good grades, or future monetary compensation. It is the victory that gives anyone who believes in it the power over death and the newness of a whole new relationship with Almighty God. It was a victory that few expected that morning after experiencing and seeing what they already had. Th...

What’s so good about this Friday? – Matthew 27 By Pastor Lee Hemen March 17, 2013 AM It was early in the morning on Yom Shishi of Passover, when all the chief priests and the elders of the people came to the decision to put Yeshua of Nazareth to death. We bound him, led him away and handed him over to Pilate, the governor. That sad little follower of Yeshua, Yudas, who had betrayed him, when he saw that Yeshua was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to us. He actually wept in our presence and whined, “I have sinned, for I have betrayed innocent blood.” We retorted, “What is that to us? That's your responsibility.” So Yudas actually threw the money into the temple and left! Can you imagine? Then he went away and hanged himself. Good riddance, no one likes a traitor! We picked up the coins and agreed that was against the law to put this into the treasury, since it is blood money. So we decided to use the money to buy the potter's field a...