John 11: 20 – 27 (NKJV)
Welcome to Nambucca Baptist Church for our service this Sunday the 2nd August 2020. This morning we will be sharing on the fifth I AM saying of Jesus in John’s gospel, I AM the resurrection and the life. We will also be celebrating Communion after the message. As always we have a warm welcome to church from Meryl with all the latest news concerning our church family. Meryl also leads us in prayer. With so many of our church family either away or unable to attend church for a number of reasons we pray for all of them. Thanks to Thona who reads the passage for us this morning and to Carmen who is running the computer and the sound desk while David is away.
This is where we would normally take up a collection but as you can see we can’t pass an offering bag around online. We have, however, provided a secure online giving facility for you. You can either use the Tithe.ly app on your smartphone or just click on the green button on the screen. We have been blessed by the way so many of you have managed to continue to give in various ways so that we can continue with the work of the Lord here in our church and beyond our walls.
Thank you for joining with us for our worship service this morning, we hope that you enjoyed it. As a treat, I have found a really good video by Sergio and Rhoda on their visit to the church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem, very close to the temple mount. This ancient church was built over the tomb of Jesus, it is quite a large church and also covers the traditional site of the crucifixion. I was able to visit this remarkable church when I was in the Holy Land, somehow my pictures did not turn out as good as this video. I can confirm along with millions of others each year that the tomb is indeed empty.
There is another site in the city called the garden tomb. Although it looks a lot more like we imagine Jesus’ tomb to look like and it is a genuine first-century tomb, not even those who manage the site believe that it is the authentic site. For the Christian tourist both sites are amazing and there is a beautiful atmosphere of peace at the garden tomb that is hard to find in the busy hustle and bustle of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.