Pastor’s Page | February 26th, 2026
Sermon Prep (Read John 8:54-59)
Who do you think you are? That is an important question, isn’t it? We can ask that of someone when we think they are getting a little too big for their britches. I once had a job where I built and cleaned pools for a year in Hattiesburg, MS. I had been there a few months when this new guy showed up and started bossing us all around. He was nice about it, but still…bossy. He acted like he was in charge and knew more than we all did. I was thinking, “I haven’t been here the longest, but I have definitely been here longer than you, buddy.” He kept trying to tell us the right way to do things and the things we were doing wrong, even trying to have an opinion on where we would eat lunch that day. The nerve of this guy! Who does he think he is! Come to find out he knew exactly who he was. He was the owner’s son, and he had built more pools than I had ever even swam in. I didn’t like the idea of being bossed around by the new guy, but as it turned out the new guy had every reason to boss me around. I just didn’t know it because I didn’t know him.
Who do you think you are? This is the question the people asked of Jesus. They were okay when He was healing their illnesses, or even when He spoke about the beauty of God’s kingdom, but when He began to make the claims of who He truly was, that was when they pushed back. We are starting a new series this week that will take us up to Easter looking at the “I AM” statements that Jesus made in the Gospel of John. The cross and the resurrection only matter if the person who is doing them matters. Who is the man on the cross? Who is the man who got up and left the tomb? Is He just a teacher, a prophet, a good man? Or is He more?
This week, we will start with the name that Jesus claimed for Himself that caused people to pick up stones and try to kill Him. Our key verse for this week is John 8:58. Read over this verse and try to pick up on why these words were so controversial. Why do you think that the people were ready to kill Jesus over these words? As you think about this, flip back to Exodus 3:13-14 and connect this to Jesus’ claim.
There will be three questions we will look at on Sunday: Who did Jesus think He was, who did the people think He was, but for us, who do we think He is? I want you to think of the implications of these questions. Who is Jesus? Why does it matter? Also, I want you to think of the significance of this name. Why is it “I AM” and not “I WAS” or “I WILL BE”? Also, if Jesus makes the claims that He makes about Himself and they are not true, can we trust anything else He says? This passage is part of a larger discourse, so this week try to read John 8:12-59.
Here are some other verses for you to look up: John 5:17-18, 5:21-23, 8:24, 8:28, 8:58, 10:30, 10:38, 13:19, 14:6-11, 17:5, 18:5-6, Mark 2:5-12, Mark 14:61-64, Matthew 25:31-32, and John 20:28-29.
March Sermon Series
“The Great I AM”
03/01 - Two Dangerous And Beautiful Words - Exodus 3:13-15 / John 8:54-59
03/08 - The Bread of Life - John 6:35-39
03/15 - The Light of the World - John 8:12-19
03/22 - The Door - John 10:1-10
03/29 - The Good Shepherd - John 10:11-18
Updates, Thoughts and More
Mission Fair. We will be having a mission fair on March 8 th . You will have a chance to hear about all the great things that Acton Methodist Church is doing both globally and in our local community. For more information, you can contact Doug Crumrine via email at doug.crumrine@gmail.com
We are entering into the season of Lent. Included in this email is our Lenten bible reading plan. Most days are only a few verses, and it includes a focus for the day and a prayer focus. I ask that you join with us in this reading plan as we journey toward the cross and the great news of Easter morning.
Registration for our Upward is open. Our first game will be April 11 and will go until May 16th. If you have any questions, please go to our website to find more information.
The Easter season is often the time in the past when people would choose to be baptized or to reaffirm their baptism. If God has been moving in your heart to be baptized or to reaffirm your baptism, please give me a call and I would love to talk to you about it.
This has been a rough week for my beloved Kentucky Wildcats. They did defeat South Carolina (which is like saying my grown kid was able to spell “dog” on her first try), but they also got hosed against both Georgia and Auburn. (Boo to the refs…boo to them and all their kinfolk!). There are only three more games before the conference tournament begins. Please pray for my sanity during this time.
What’s Going On This Week
Sunday (03/01)
Worship Services - 9:00am & 10:30am
Monday (03/02)
Stitching Angels - 1:30pm
Tuesday (03/03)
Men’s Prayer Breakfast - 7:30am
Bible Study - 10:00am
Wednesday (03/04)
Prayer Warriors - 9:00am
Sip And Share - 10:00am
Youth & Kids - 5:00pm
Table Talk - 5:00pm
Choir - 7:00pm
Thursday (03/05)
Psalms Bible Study - 9:30am
Stephen Ministry Scam and Fraud Seminar - 5:00pm
Upward Volunteer Meeting - 6:00pm
Joke of the Week
A mother went to wake her son for church one Sunday morning. When she knocked on his door, he said, “I’m not going!” “Why not?” asked his mother. “I’ll give you two good reasons,” he said. “One, they don’t like me. Two, I don’t like them.” His mother replied, “I’ll give you two good reasons why YOU WILL go to church. One, you’re 47 years old. Two, you’re the pastor!”
Memory Verse of the Week
“I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”
~John 8:58 (NIV84)
Quote of the Week
“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great moral teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
~C.S. Lewis
