The desire of God is not that you would be insulated or isolated from the world, but that you would be a living testimony to God’s truth in and to the world.

Every Christian experiences a tension between desiring to be separated from the world and obedience to proclaim the gospel to the world. Throughout history, there have been excesses on both sides of this tension. Sometimes, Christians have overemphasized separation from the world and sought to isolate themselves from the world and restrict contact with non-Christians. At other times, Christians have overemphasized ministry to the world and abandoned holiness and the requirements of faith and obedience in a foolish attempt to make the gospel more worldly appealing.

The Christian who attempts to isolate themselves from the world disobeys God’s command to be a gospel light and witness to the world, and the Christian who seeks at all costs to be appealing to the world disobeys God’s command to live lives of holiness.

Whether you are a recent high school graduate preparing to enter the working world or attend college, or an adult working a secular job, every Christian must wrestle with this tension that comes from living a holy life for Christ while living in an evil world.

This is the very issue that Jesus is praying about in John 17:14-19. He does not pray that God would take Christians out of the world, but while they are in the world, keep them holy and obedient to the faith.

In this sermon, pastor Ben Smith preaches from John 17:14-19 on how you can be in the world without becoming like the world by seeking godly affections, resting in God’s power, and being set apart by God.

Ben Smith is the pastor of Central Baptist Church, Waycross, GA.

This sermon was originally preached on 5/4/2025 for graduate recognition Sunday.

Books and downloadable PDFs of Pastor Ben’s sermon notes are available at http://bensmithsr.org/resources.

For more information on Central Baptist Church, visit www.cbcwaycross.org.

For Christians, the resurrection of Jesus is not something that is celebrated once a year but a moment that forever changes your life.

In a few weeks, many will celebrate the completion of their high school or college studies. To recognize these achievements, schools will host graduation ceremonies, called commencement exercises. Because these ceremonies celebrate the completion of a course of study, most people think of a commencement service as a ceremony to mark the conclusion of something.

However, to commence means to start. Commencement exercises are intended to mark the beginning of something. For high school graduates, that is the beginning of their life as adults and entering the workforce, and for college graduates, that is the beginning of the career they trained for.

This is similar to how many think about Resurrection Sunday. In many ways, Resurrection Sunday can feel like the conclusion – the big event. And thus, the Sunday after is more about getting back to normal. The family pictures have been taken and posted to social media. The new clothes are now just another piece in your wardrobe. All of the candy has been eaten. And now things are back to a regular routine and norm.

For those who have confessed Jesus as Lord and believed that God raised him from the dead, the resurrection is not the conclusion but the beginning. For Christians, Resurrection Sunday is not an event that comes and goes; it is a celebration of a moment that forever changes their lives.

Luke 24:13-35 recounts the experience of two men who seemed very familiar with Jesus and what He taught. They seemed to have had high hopes that Jesus was, in fact, the Messiah. Yet they are perplexed because of the events that led to Jesus’s crucifixion and death. They have heard reports that His body is no longer in the grave and that He is, in fact, alive.

These are amazing and perplexing things to these men, but at the point that we meet them in Luke 24, these events have had no impact on their lives. They are walking home and getting back to their regular lives. But as they walk home, they meet Jesus, and everything about their lives changes.

The resurrection forever transforms your understanding and your life.

Ben Smith is the pastor of Central Baptist Church, Waycross, GA.

This sermon was originally preached on 4/27/2025 for Resurrection Sunday.

Books and downloadable PDFs of Pastor Ben’s sermon notes are available at http://bensmithsr.org/resources.

For more information on Central Baptist Church, visit www.cbcwaycross.org.

The resurrection of Jesus is more than a historical event. The resurrection of Jesus is a confrontation of faith. Do you believe that He is the resurrection and life?

This interaction between Martha and Jesus is dripping with emotion. Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha, had a close and affectionate relationship with Jesus. Verses 33-36 tell us that when Mary met him, accompanied by many mourners, he was deeply moved, and when he came to the tomb, he wept. The sisters are grieved by the loss of their brother and disappointed that Jesus had not arrived in time to heal him from his sickness.

There is a tendency to read this passage and focus primarily on the emotions. However, God is doing more than ministering to emotions in this passage. In God’s providence, he was providing an opportunity to demonstrate His glory and call his disciples to a deeper faith and belief.

Martha acknowledged that she believed in the resurrection on the last day, but this belief was academic and did not influence how she experienced the grief of the moment. Jesus called her to personally believe that he alone is the source and power of resurrection and eternal life. Many people, like Martha, acknowledge Jesus's resurrection, but what does it mean to have faith and belief that Jesus is the resurrection and the life? This passage exposes the insufficiency of knowledge alone and the requirement of faith and confession.

Having faith and belief that Jesus is the resurrection and the life is:

- More than an acknowledgment of fact.

- Believing that in Jesus alone is salvation.

- Confessing Jesus as Christ and Lord.

Ben Smith is the pastor of Central Baptist Church, Waycross, GA.

This sermon was originally preached on 4/20/2025 for Resurrection Sunday.

Books and downloadable PDFs of Pastor Ben’s sermon notes are available at http://bensmithsr.org/resources.

For more information on Central Baptist Church, visit www.cbcwaycross.org.