Good morning everyone, to all my brothers and sisters in Christ. Welcome church family. Even though we are scattered all over the world, we are still one in Christ. We know that the Father and The Son are one and we as His children are one included in the one, we are a simple gathering of believers who obtain power from the essence of God. We all may be in different areas with different cultures, speaking different languages that all are caring our crosses for our Lord Jesus Christ, The King of Kings. We are all living our lives to God by the direction and leading of The Holy Spirit. You may feel alone at times but you are never alone when you can tap into the power and love of our God. We are very fortunate to have a triangle of pure love and mercy with power beyond the Heavens, but as each step we take we are carried, walked or comforted by an unseen force, that is so powerful our bodies or natural minds do not feel it. Spirits that are our being are having conversations expressing love between each other, friendship, advice, mercy and understanding all in the spiritual realm. We can not focus on the natural realm or flesh and blood and ordinary human worldly thinking. We are supernatural beings that with Gods power we can do anything we wish, but what we wish is to serve the awesome power of the God of Israel. We all need to exercise our spirits, just like a runner exercises so he can go farther and once we realize that there is no limits to our spiritual existence this is where the joy of life comes to being.
There are so many that think this life of flesh and blood is our existence, but it is Jesus who is the way the truth and the light. A life of purity awaits us, a life of joy and everlasting. We are here on earth and God gave us all a free will to go by the way of the world or we enter through the narrow road into the Kingdom of Heaven. While we are here, we are supposed to carry pure love and to understand and learn all about our Heavenly Father and to be close to Him, to understand Him, and to have a relationship with Him. The Father left us one piece of holy matter, the Bible, His word, we all should be spending this early life reading these words. The Bible holds of all ranges of our existence and our needs and thoughts and how we are to communicate, love, and care and live with all life that exists with us. All life is important; all life was created by God. Man of course is the image of God, other life has been given to us for companionship, food, and beauty, all created by our God to make it a fulfilling short time we spend learning who God is what he made for us and to learn values of life each in everyway as a stairway to growth. We learn about the delicate flower, of a tall tree to a large four footed creature. Why they exist and why they share this world with us. Next is to learn about the Son the closest thing to our God. God made laws in His only whole matter book. But God foresaw the future piece by piece, as a man of earthly flesh carrying sin within, He knew we all would be sinners and would need a Savior, because we all sin and we were born into sin. So we are to learn to communicate and to look for Jesus Christ. We read the Gospels which are different accounts of his life, suffering, tormented and ridiculed by His own people, which we can openly say it could be us and our forefathers. The Father planned way beyond during creation, because in the beginning was the Word and Word was with God and the Word was God. The word “was” in scripture tells us that Jesus was already with the Father. Using the descending order of the sentence, so the word was with God all ready as we compare to Col.1:15-16 for by Him all things were created both on the Heavens and the earth visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominations or rulers or authorities, all things have been created by Him and for Him. So my brothers and sisters this is the most powerful understanding of the beauty of Jesus Christ and between John 1:1-2 Jesus in not only equal to God He is God. Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God. Jesus is the open door to God. Jesus is not just a reflection of the almighty; He also is the freedom and light of God. As we combine scripture to scripture, as Jesus was in the temple defending and explaining Himself to everyone in John 8:58
Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.".
The statement alone was statement God gave Moses at the burning bush at Ex. 3:14
God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"
So God and Jesus are one they are both “I Am”.
Then Jesus cried out in the temple, teaching and saying, "You both know Me and know where I am from; and I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know. John 7:28-29 NASB
So as we go over the Chapter 7-8 of John these men “Pharisees” were very reluctant to listen to Jesus talk at the temple, the Pharisees were confused over Christ. He was giving them a simple explanation. So Nicodemus stepped in and said;
"Our Law does not judge a man unless it first hears from him and knows what he is doing, does it?" John 7:51 NASB
As we break this down the as I said before the Pharisees were confused over Christ in the end of chapter 7, Nicodemus told the Pharisees were stepping out of their own law, their in comparison to Jesus just in simple conversation their honor was dropping they did not stand as tall next to Jesus, their prestige was being washed away. There own self pride was affecting there judgment toward Jesus and their ability to reason. You see what pride can do? In other words they had to remove Jesus to save their dignity so the Pharisees gave Jesus the test, hoping to find something wrong with Him. And we all know how Jesus handled the situation by telling everyone that was so eager to stone the woman caught in adultery, Jesus said any man without sin can cast the first stone. A famous saying which was a remarkable way Jesus handled Himself and He not only passed the test from the Pharisees, that one sentence sticks in peoples minds for eternity. Now as we walk through when the scene was over, the leaders left first followed by the oldest then the younger ones. As we grow and age in this world we begin the many years of mistakes, slips of the tongue, the many sins, and older person has done many more sins then a younger person, speaking overall, when we grow older, we gain more wisdom to pin point our sins. Also as we grow older we loose that youthful self righteousness.
In this passage we will backtrack a bit to formulate the story the way it happened.
Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life." John 8:12 NASB
When Jesus said He was the light of the world, it meant many things. He was speaking to the Pharisees in the room where the offering boxes were placed. This part of the temple was also called the treasury room also had candles burning to be a symbol of the pillar of fire that guided the Israelites through the wilderness. So as I said before when Jesus said He was the light of the world and the light of life. The pillar of fire in Ex. 13:21-22 represented the presence of God, Our Lords protection, and His guidance.
By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people. Ex.13:21-22 NIV
So if Jesus and The Father are one then He too was there at their protection, presence and guidance. Our Jesus stands in all presence to all who believe in Him.
The Pharisees challenged him, “Here you are, appearing as your own witness; your testimony is not valid.”John 8:13 NIV
Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going. You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one. But if I do judge, my decisions are right, because I am not alone. I stand with the Father, who sent me. In your own Law it is written that the testimony of two men is valid. I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father, who sent me.”
Then they asked him, “Where is your father?”
“You do not know me or my Father,” Jesus replied. “If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” He spoke these words while teaching in the temple area near the place where the offerings were put. Yet no one seized him, because his time had not yet come.
Once more Jesus said to them, “I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.”
This made the Jews ask, “Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, ‘Where I go, you cannot come’?”
But he continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins.”
“Who are you?” they asked.
“Just what I have been claiming all along,” Jesus replied. “I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is reliable, and what I have heard from him I tell the world.”
They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father. So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am the one I claim to be and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.” Even as he spoke, many put their faith in him. John 8:13-30 NIV
Yes we are followers of Christ but in this story the people all the workers and stone cutters were all there arguing with Jesus, not believing His words and acting terrible towards Jesus. Jesus was trying to point out by there actions they were not being guided by The Father.
He even told the Pharisees that they will not see the Kingdom of Heaven, the reason many thought He was a liar some type of lunatic. They never even thought or had inkling that He was The Christ or Messiah. We ourselves should never close our minds to anyone or anything we are and should be open to learn about all things. The smallest fact that we learn from anyone or anything written might save a life or our own lives. Maybe not to get off the subject, I wanted to learn sign language, because if an accident occurs to someone who is deaf at least I know if they are all right and have the ability to communicate in a different language for people that are handicapped.
Within our next segment of scriptures 8:13-18 the Pharisees were giving the excuse for not believing that Jesus was not speaking the truth because you needed two people or two witnesses but as you can see the Pharisees were so confused they did not realize that the Father of Heaven and earth was His other witness. .
One witness is not enough to convict a man accused of any crime or offense he may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. Deut. 19:15 NIV
We call this being closed minded. When you open your mind you also open your heart so again between the two minds and hearts you can make proper decisions, directions, and solve unanswered questionable problems.
The place where they were talking in there room was called in Temple Treasury, located in the Court of Women. In this large room or area to be specific the room held 13 collection boxes, of course like in some churches today, usually in a church there would be just one, maybe two, but this setup and room was mixing of the church and state. Seven of the boxes were for tax of the temple the other six were free will offerings. I do not understand the number of the boxes why were they not even? Seven is a number that shows completeness, six is a number that is incomplete.
He spoke these words while teaching in the temple area near the place where the offerings were put. Yet no one seized him, because his time had not yet come. John 8:20 NIV
Jesus also told them, "I am going away, and you will look for me. But you cannot go where I am going, and you will die with your sins unforgiven." The Jewish leaders asked, "Does he intend to kill himself? Is that what he means by saying we cannot go where he is going?"
Jesus answered, "You are from below, but I am from above. You belong to this world, but I don't. That is why I said you will die with your sins unforgiven. If you don't have faith in me for who I am, you will die, and your sins will not be forgiven." "Who are you?" they asked Jesus.
Jesus answered, "I am exactly who I told you at the beginning. There is a lot more I could say to condemn you. But the one who sent me is truthful, and I tell the people of this world only what I have heard from him."
No one understood that Jesus was talking to them about the Father. Jesus went on to say, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, you will know who I am. You will also know that I don't do anything on my own. I say only what my Father taught me. The one who sent me is with me. I always do what pleases him, and he will never leave me." After Jesus said this, many of the people put their faith in him. John 8: 21-28 CEV
Jesus was being very plain in his speech, trying to save souls, what love! He was just starting out with a group of facts, Jesus was from Heaven, they were from the earth or below and that Jesus may have been born on this planet but He was not a part of the world, we all live and exist. He just comes out with truth that you are going to die in your sins. Do you believe this the Pharisees, meaning separate our legalistic leaders who zealously kept the law to its smallest detail? Here we have it my brothers and sisters the leaders we had 2,000 years ago who are the tops of our legalistic system, who are supposed to have that extra understanding, compassion, well schooled, well taught, proper upbringing, and respected, plus given honor too. Our Jesus says well you people are going to die in your sins.
Well my people, what do you think? Do we have an open mind has our leadership changed? As we all know the world is worse and getting worse day by day.
Plain and simple these educated men rejected Jesus Christ when there is so many reference points all through the most of the Old Testament. Remember the New Testament has not even been written yet and there are so many amounts of actual scripture which talks about Jesus Christ. How can these men reject Him? It makes you wonder, could it just be self righteousness, pride or jealousy? Or are they being guided by a different father?
There is only one way to be rescued from sin to believe in Our Lord Jesus. I mean who would turn down such a gift as eternal life. It is quite amazing, something so precious, “human life” You see God shows us in other ways like in nature for instance. You take a crawling ugly bug like the caterpillar, then this bug is reborn so to speak, this piece of nature makes a cocoon and then goes into a deep sleep then when this piece of nature wakes up the body sheds and out of the cocoon comes a beautiful flying butterfly. Understand church people, simple analogy. People care more of worldly values, possessions and accomplishments and they are constantly being blinded by the evil one.
If the Good News we preach is veiled from anyone, it is a sign that they are perishing. Satan, the god of this evil world, has blinded the minds of those who don't believe, so they are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News that is shining upon them. They don't understand the message we preach about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God. 2Cor. 4:3-4 NIV
This is so intense; I can not even convince my own Mother! She is well educated and I call every Sunday and witness. What kind of hold does The Father of lies have? Free will again. We as true Christians love believe and understand Jesus. We want to be more like Him. We do not want to focus on the value of the world, we have to live in it, but God has given us so many clues and facts of truth. How can we end this war? If you have any ideas, please email me. How can we get at large masses and just preach truth to save souls?
You see God even gave us an actual clue or fact in nature itself, how plain do we have to be?
And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
So if the Son sets you free, you will indeed be free. John 8:32&36 NIV
God has a special plan for each and every one of us. It makes you wonder how The Almighty Lord can keep track of so many people all different, all in different locations. You see it makes you love the Father even more! Jesus is truth and freedom He is the one who physically and mentally and spiritually suffered all that pain and of course many theologians feel He possibly could have died of a broken heart on that cross at Calvary. He did it for us and we were still in our sins. What love of course His truth alone will set us free, He has already won the battle and He has the scars to prove it? So He is the perfect example of what is right and we should follow Him and the word of God constantly.
Deception, we all know that the devil is the deceiver and main cause of deception plus he can influence us to be full of self-deception. We know the battlefield is the mind and our minds control everything our health, our relationships, our actions and thoughts. Do not forget he has his own already defeated army, but so many people do not even realize that they could be controlled without us even knowing about it. Even a simple sentence implanted into a mind of, lets say a believer so do not go home and throw on the boob tube and watch the way of the world.
They could be sitting in church, and then here that simple “evil” voice, and t says the preacher is boring do not listen to him, and that preacher could be saying something so important even important enough to save you from the gates of hell and that subtle miss direction of thought could have saved your life at a later date. Do you see how a manipulated thought could destroy a life? Yes my brothers and sisters it can even get more out of hand or even more intense, so be on the lookout,
Be careful! Watch out for attacks from the Devil, your great enemy. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for some victim to devour. Take a firm stand against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your Christian brothers and sisters all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering you are. 1Pet 5:8-9
No Satan is not stupid, he wants a wide range of believers, he does not want believers to prosper he wants as much company in the place called hell. Now what he does is the old divide and conquer, he has only been studying the human race for thousands of years. He wants to do the most damage to Christianity. So where can he implant the evil thought which will affect thousands, He attacks the preacher! There may be a church with 3,000 people in it., and he starts with the deception a little each week, a simple implant of a thought and after a month or year you have a full blown tragedy of 3,000 confused believers! That maybe will be well off on the road to destruction because they believe in their pastor! This is happening all over the world. Do your multiplication, we start out with the pastor following the Father of love, hope and healing and mercy and slowly turned into following The Father of lies and deception. And I have seen this myself, and now they have special counselors to bring you out of a mind altering church. There are reports now that some people never come out of the evil state they were slowly tricked and manipulated into. What a mess, but to the evil one how can he do the most damage? Attack the churches the seminaries attacking from within to destroy the messages coming right from the pulpit! Now there are groups and associations to stop these actions before they get too far. There are people that have been so hurt by churches they will never return from the fear of going through another horrible nightmare.
Sin has a way of binding us, calculating us, governing us and dictating our actions. Our Lord Jesus can give us all the freedom we need if only we believe.
Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father." John 8:34-38 ESV
Jesus loves us he cares and wants us to live a life of freedom. He does not want us to be in any type of bondage even in this world. We may not think we are slaves to the world, but some of us are, with our lives, our jobs and work all types of hours that we cannot spend with our families to be free. All we truly need is Jesus, and so many people just forget, or rush off to work and continue working in a job they dislike, but to some the Lord has already intervened. Most people today think that money will give them freedom, so what they do they work themselves almost to death just to put food on the table, most other countries think that America is very rich, but we all know things could be different. Some people think if they make enough money they will find that security or can rest easy knowing they can pay the bills. But then they can not spend time with their children, and then the children take a wrong turn because there is no one home to supervise. There are so many young people today that are falling into the drug world and even the alcohol world, and all that work and money they made the parents have to spend on counselors and sometimes lawyers and jails, so you all must ask yourself is it all worth it. Are not my children more important then making a lot of money? God created each and every one of us to be the person that He wants us to be. Jesus can save us from all things, from our daily routine to all our problems and burdens.
They answered and said to Him, "Abraham is our father" Jesus said to them, "If you are Abraham's children, do the deeds of Abraham. "But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do.
"You are doing the deeds of your father " They said to Him, "We were not born of fornication; we have one Father: God."
Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me.
"Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word.
"You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. John 8:39-44 NASB
In scripture Jesus is explaining to the people that they are acting not like there Father Abraham. He says you are obeying your real father the devil, just by their actions. These people were acting unruly they were laughing and snickering at all the words of Jesus. There is a big difference between the trust of the children of Abraham and just being a part of Abrahams family by relations genetics or tradition, it is not the same Jesus was trying to explain this to these people, it was like no one wanted to listen to Him. The religious leaders were related as children of Abraham, but all they could do is claim to be his decedents. By there actions it showed they were not bearing fruit of Abraham, but of Satan, and they were also living under Satan’s guidance. So my brothers and sisters nothing has changed if you do not believe in Jesus, then you are being guided by Satan. Plain and simple! Life I said before, these people in order to be true Christians and children of Abraham which in the same true children of God they would connect this way. Remember we are to be imitators of God we are not perfect but we must firmly try.
We all have to understand and listen we cannot have a one track mind, these people in the temple did not want to listen that is why Jesus called Satan there father all they had to do was listen and not be so stubborn, or prideful or prejudice. Do not forget Satan can use these sins against us to hurt or manipulate others. The actions of the leaders wanted to murder Jesus, now who or what kind of children of God or Abraham ever wanted to murder someone. Jesus knew there hearts and as he spoke these hard words to everyone in verse 44, just by the way they acted and by the time Jesus said one of the most powerful statements in v 58 they all wanted to stone him like a sinful hungry hurt angry mob. Some of them may or may not have known what they were doing, after all they were all under control by evil and they were being blinded of what they were actually doing. Then Jesus went to the top of one of the stairs and shouted out:
"Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? John 8:46 NASB
HOW HARD AND LOUD HE SPOKE v44 TO THEM ALL, AND NOT JUST THE LEADERSHIP, ALL OF THEM. Jesus never sinned or could sin, but probably a few in the crowd were surprised. We have to realize how heavy and wide scene is. Satan pushes men to the extreme even to the point they murder themselves or others. He is out to destroy the mind of man which would eventually ruin there sons, He pushes everything that is false and, makes his lies believable to people who do not know Christ. This same situation is going on all over the world but it still remains so silent, and it seems he likes it like that that people just are not warned enough his greatest lie is that he does not exist. So people today run to the doctor and start taking a pill instead of building a believing relationship with Jesus Christ. Do not forget he has been around as long as man existed so of course he is the author of lies and then intern starts the domino affect producing more liars and more evil. If it was not for the Christians today that already exist they say the world probably would not even exist, and it does not stop just at the lies, we have a broader spectrum different kinds of lusts, spiritual wickedness, lusts of the mind and decayed reasoning’s, pride, envy, wrath, malice, hatred towards good and trickery for people to do evil. At this time Christ is preaching truth and reality, the Jews did not want to listen, believe or agree with anything Jesus said. We are here to expose the lies of the devil and the same things happened 2,000 years ago but now it is even worse children are caring all kinds of weapons to kill one another, people are dying in the streets, just because Satan has gone wild, children are dying today by the minutes and for reasons about turf. What area you walk in or just walk through. People are fighting over pieces of property, in life and death situations. People need to know Christ at an early age, but it is so hard today in this day. Families are split up and the Mother or Father are working several jobs just to keep there families alive.
"But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me. "Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? "He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God." The Jews answered and said to Him, "Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?" Jesus answered, "I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. "But I do not seek My glory; there is One who seeks and judges. "Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death." The Jews said to Him, "Now we know that You have a demon Abraham died, and the prophets also; and You say, 'If anyone keeps My word, he will never taste of death.' "Surely You are not greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets died too; whom do You make Yourself out to be?" Jesus answered, "If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, 'He is our God'; and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad." So the Jews said to Him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?" John 8:45-57 NASB
Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am." John 8:58 NASB
Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple. John 8:59 NASB
When he finally said that last paragraph about Abraham, it tells us that Abraham was just a special man and our Lord the Creator When Jesus mentioned “I am” it is the same name God Himself used at the burning bush in EX.13 remember Jesus is self existing. He is the first and the last. He was not just before Abraham He was before all the worlds in the universe.
The Lord Jesus was made of God wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and that thin red line of redemption running through the whole number one book, the book of truth, the bible.
We all look forward to that day of His return and see Him in full glory and shocking all evil and to continue and finish salvation to all that believe in Him.
