"Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?"
One pence is worth $1.29 US dollars. That is not much but that was the common wage for one day of work back then. If you were to say eight hours in one day that would be 16 cents per hour. Most likely these people worked from sun up to sundown. today, 12/ 27/2020, sunrise is 7:32 AM and sunset is 5:28 PM. That's about 10 hours, so if you adjusted this to 10 hours per day a person back then made only 13 cents/hour. Did you know here in America there wasn't a minimum wage until 1938? That same year America passed the law of a 40 hour week? How much do you think the federal minimum wage was in 1938? If you answered 25 cents/hour you would be correct. Now let's see how much things cost back in 1938. A new average house $23.900, a new car $860, tuition to Harvard $420/year, gas 10 cents/gallon, eggs 18 cents/DZ, milk 50 cents/gallon, Now let's jump to 2020. The federal minimum wage is $7.25/hour, some states are $15/hour, milk $3.30/gallon, eggs 1.51/DZ, new car $33,000, gas $2.18/gallon, new average house $330,000. Now let's just back to the Bible. This event was in 33 AD. That's almost 2,000 ago and that place is not America but in Israel, controlled by the Roman Government. Jesus and his disciples are still in Bethany. Jesus has just raised Lazarus back to life. The Jewish religious leaders, especially the chief priests and the Pharisees have decided to kill Jesus (John 11:53) Because they feared everyone will believe in Jesus, they would lose their position and influence, and the Romans will take away their place and nation (John 11:48). All of that was because Jesus did the impossible miracle of bringing Lazarus who was dead for more than four days back from the grave. In chapter 12 vs.1, the Bible says this even we will study happened 6 days before the Passover. That means that day was a Saturday and the next day is Palm Sunday. The last supper will be on Thursday, and Jesus will be crucified on Friday. Jesus knows his time on Earth is very short before he dies. No one seems to realize this but instead, they're all celebrating that Lazarus is alive and they are all talking about that awesome miracle. In vs. 2, we see Martha busy serving everyone. I'm sure she is serving with great joy in her heart. she can't believe her brother Lazarus is alive. She and many others are probably looking at Lazarus, talking to him, touching him, maybe even pinching him, or hugging him, just to make sure he is really alive. That all seemed like a dream but one by one their faith is growing in Jesus and in vs.11, many of the Jews believed in Jesus. We see that Lazarus is sitting next to Jesus, enjoying the party and rejoicing that he is alive. Jesus has given Lazarus and his family worth more than all the money in the world. For some reason, we don't see Mary, the other sister of Lazarus, but then in vs.3, she appears and goes right to Jesus. She is so grateful to Jesus that she took the most precious and the most expensive thing she owns and gives it to Jesus. In Matthew 26:7 we see it is an Alabaster box of precious ointment. She pours this expensive ointment over the head of Jesus. We see in John 12:3 that this was an ointment of spikenard. Alabaster is a stone commonly found in Israel resembling white marble. It is one of the precious stone that was used to decorate Solomon's temple (1 Chronicles 29:2), this Alabaster box Mary had was very expensive and kept the ointment, oils, or perfume pure and unspoiled. The boxes were sealed with wax to prevent the ointment to escape. Spikenard is a perfume from the root of a plant grown in the Himalayan Mountains. it is called by the Arabs "The Indian Spike". It is distinguished by having many hairy spikes shooting out of one root. Spikenard is also found in the song of Solomon (1:12). It had a strong pleasant aroma that was good for the skin and the hair. Spikenard in the ancient culture symbolized the very best like the gold standard or a precious expensive diamond. Mary's intention of breaking the Alabaster Box and pouring this precious expensive ointment of spikenard on the head and feet of Jesus was telling everyone that she only wanted the best to define her love for Jesus. This precious item was most likely the inheritance her parents gave to her. the reaction of many people was surprising very negative, especially from Judas Iscariot vs. 4. In vs. 5, he says with anger "Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?" John, the writer of this Gospel says in vs. 6 that Judas didn't care for the poor but was a thief and was the one in charge of the bag for donations. He took from that bag when no one was watching. Jesus knew all of this yet he didn't say anything. Jesus already knew the heart of Judas. If you calculate $1.29, a day's wage, by 300 working days that would equal $387. Not a lot of money today but that would be a lot back then. If we said $12/hour for 40 hours for 52 weeks, that would come out to $24,900 and that's before tax. By the way, that's only 200 days, not 300. $25,00 can be spent in many ways but most people would agree that it would have been a waste to give all that to Jesus. if you were given $25k, what would you do with it? Give 10% tithe, pay down all of your debts, buy groceries, and save. To Mary, it didn't matter what other thought about what she did. she would do it again in a heart beat. Jesus meant more to her than anything else. How about you? What does Jesus mean to you? What does Jesus think about all this? In vs. 7-8 we get the answer, Jesus tells everyone to let her alone. He says she is preparing him for his burial or in other words death. Once again Jesus knows what will happen in 6 days and he is reminding everyone that he will die. He tells everyone that the poor, they will always have, but not Jesus. In the future, maybe in the near future, Jesus is coming back for us. this time he is not leaving us but taking us to be with him forever. Are you ready? Let's make sure we are.
"And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. 20 Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you."
Why do we have communion?
The simple answer to this is because Jesus commanded it in Luke 22:19-20. He said this during the last supper he had with his disciples before dying on the cross. He wants us to remember this and do this on a regular basis.
He said the bread represents the body of Jesus. His body will be badly bruised and ripped to shreds. He will take this broken body and go on the cross and willingly stay there. He will sacrifice his own body until he dies on the cross all because he loves us. It’s an incredible act of kindness but it’s more than that. He is our hero that takes all the suffering for us, so we don’t have to suffer. He takes all the beating, so we don’t have to take the beating. He took all our sins as the perfect sacrifice so God can completely forgive us because He is the only one that can. Every time we take part in eating the bread, we are to remember what Jesus has done for us. Let’s eat the bread together.
The juice in the cup represents the blood of Jesus. He wants us to know only by the blood of the perfect sacrifice of Jesus are we able to be set free. In Exodus 12, the Israelites were commanded to sprinkle the blood of a lamb with no defects on their door post. The Angel of death would see the blood and Passover that house and spare anyone in that house. That picture is what happens to us when we believe in Jesus. Jesus then comes in our lives and make it holy. Jesus had to shed his blood on the cross so God will Passover all of those that accept Jesus in their lives. As it says in vs. 20, the blood of Jesus is the new testament or in another words, it is the new law or new contract and Jesus made with God for all the people that put their faith in Jesus. Only because of Jesus and what he did for us are we truly saved. Let’s drink the juice together.
Let’s praise God because through Jesus we have peace with God and a new life. Let’s end with this verse found in Romans 12:2 “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
"6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this."
Christmas is a time that I have cherished ever since I came to America in 1979. It was amazing to see all the colorful Christmas lights, all the stores beautifully decorated, and all the TV commercials of all the toys kids like me at 8 wanted. It was and still is one of the best days of the year. It is a magical time filled with mystery of a generous man name Santa, his reindeers, and elves to help him. I remembered everyone being so happy and I kept hearing people say with a great big smile “Merry Christmas”. Like most kids around that age, I became a believer that Santa will bring a present if I was good. My faith was rewarded when I saw the present I wanted – “Hungry Hungry Hippo”. I was convinced that it was Santa because when I asked who gave me this present, everyone (my parents, my aunt and uncle) said it must be from Santa. They told me that he must have put it under the Christmas tree in the middle of the night. As years went by, my brother and I realized all this was made up since the power of our curiosity helped us to stay up late at night to see that it was the adults in our lives that put those presents there. That didn’t matter for us because the great joy of this holiday was and still is very important to us.
I saw firsthand how happy it made others to get a present. It also was a great joy to see the giver giving the present. As you can tell I love Christmas. The meaning of Christmas changed when I received Christ in my heart, but it only made this special holiday even more special. It wasn’t about Santa and his helpers anymore, but it was about the birth of Jesus. We recently sang the Christmas song “The First Noel” to one of my wife’s friend and her family. It was a great joy to be able to give presents and sing this song to them from our ministry – Kairos Missions. We plan to sponsor a family every Christmas and to share Noel to them.
What is Noel? I was able to find some answers in the website: gotquestions.org
In French, joyeux noel means “Merry Christmas.” Many of the English and French carols started with the word Noel which meant any Christmas songs referring to the birth of Jesus. In 1823, the book “Carols Ancient and Modern” included the song “The First Noel”. That song is a joyful celebration that Jesus, the King of Israel was born. When we sing this song to anyone, we are wishing a joyous Noel and announcing the good news that Jesus, our savior was born for them. We are telling everyone that Jesus is not just for the Israel, but for all of us. It gives us hope that anyone who puts their faith in Jesus will have their sins forgiven and will be saved.
I have come to realize that the greatest gift anyone can receive is the gift of salvation. Jesus knew that the only way we can truly be right with God and spend eternity with God, was for Him to come down from heaven to earth to save us. He knew there was no other way. He is truly wonderful. No government will be able to fight this enemy of darkness. Only Jesus was able to completely defeat Satan and free us. Truly all the government and this whole world is on his shoulder. He is the mighty God and the only one powerful enough to take the impossible shackles that was on our hands and feet off. Jesus is also our everlasting Father. He is the father that all of us needs and we are fortunate to call him our father. He is the father that comforts those without fathers. He is our good dad and we can even call him daddy. Because of Jesus, he has given us peace. I’m so thankful that He has given me so much peace in my life even though I don’t deserve it. He is truly the Prince of Peace.
Jesus will continue to increase in our lives and in the lives that God has entrusted to us. Those can be our: wife, husband, fathers, mothers, brothers, sister, sons, daughters, friends, employees, or employers. He has given us a small government where He is the King and He rules with peace that has no end and only he can give us this peace. Jesus gives us wisdom, protection, and provision to establish sound judgement so we can live right for God. It’s not easy but we know that without Jesus, it is impossible. The zeal of the Lord, or in another words, our dedication and enthusiasm for God will help us to do all these things. This awesome Christmas story of the birth of Jesus, is the Noel we need to sing and talk about often. Noel is not only for the Christmas season, but Noel is for everyday and for everyone.
The most incredible miracle just took place. Lazarus, who was dead for 4 days, was raised back to life by the power of Jesus. It was a miracle. Biologically, it was impossible. Without the life flowing from the beating of the heart causing the blood to transport oxygen to every part of the body, it is dead. Brain dead, heart dead; everything dead. Jesus had to give Lazarus a new heart to completely restore Lazarus. Jesus essentially breathed life back into Lazarus. Lazarus literally got a second chance at life. It's interesting that during this amazing miracle most people respond by believing in Jesus, vs.45, but there seems to always be those few that will twist this and make it bad. In vs.46, we read that "some of them went their way to the Pharisees." Why did they do that? Maybe they are spies or maybe they think they will get a reward for giving info to the Pharisees. What ever the reason, it looks like they do things for their own personal gain, even if it will harm others. These people cannot be trusted. They don't have a side they are loyal to. The only side they care about is themselves. These people are easily bribed. They are easy targets to be unfaithful in marriage. Isn't it sad that they sold Jesus for a little bit of money? We are called to be faithful. What does that mean? Before we talk about faithful, let's talk about faithless. In vs. 47 we see that the Pharisees & the chief priests were gathered. They didn't gather to pray, but were very worried. The faithless people worries a lot. In Matthew 6:34 the Bible says, "Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil there of." When you allow yourself to worry, those thoughts of worry will over take you. That one worry will lead to another, then another, and eventually you will have a panic attack. It's like a dam that has a little crack. That little crack, if not fixed, will eventually break the entire dam and then all the water you worked so hard to preserve will be washed away. Worry is really fear. God doesn't want us to have fear. Fear doesn't come from God but power does. In 2 Timothy 1:7 we read, "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of sound mind," They were worried that Jesus does miracles. That's like saying the mighty avengers just saved the world again but people worry that they have powers. If they accepted these miracles as signs that God is with them, they should have rejoiced; dropped everything, and followed Jesus. They should have accepted Jesus as the Messiah, the Promised Savior and worked together with Him, but they were just afraid of his powers to do miracles. Raising Lazarus from the dead was the greatest miracle that anyone has ever seen. They were worried, as it says in vs. 48 of losing all the people. They have used deception and fear to keep the people and they have become very rich and powerful. The faithless don't trust in God. In Proverbs 3:5-6 the Bible says, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." If they would have given their fears over to God and trust in God with all of their hearts, they would be directed by God to the right path. Faithless people look to the power and wealth of this world. The second part of vs. 48 says, "And the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation." These people think they are the ones that gave themselves a special power from the Roman Government. The beauty is, it was all God that preserved His people. The Roman government could have easily wiped out all the Jews. God made sure to give the Roman Government wisdom when conquering a nation. They didn't want to destroy all the people but to work with the people. The Jewish leaders probably had a system where a large portion of the offering collected was given to the Roman government. They used this large amount of money to gain political power to influence the Roman government in their favor. This money was not their money but the people's money who gave to God. This money was really God's money. These leaders didn't trust in God. They trusted in money. The faithless are lovers of money. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 6:10, "For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." The faithless have weird thoughts. In vs. 49-52 one or the chief high priest named Caiaphas had a vision on Jesus dying to save the world. The question that I want to ask is who showed him this vision? If this was truly from God, it should have led them to the correct action of following God, but that's not what happened. In vs. 53 it says, "Then from that day forth they took counsel together to put Him to death," They had this weird idea that they are called by God to kill Jesus. That vision was not from God. Who else in the spirit world knows the truth of Jesus? The answer in my opinion is everyone in the spirit world. That is God, angels, demons, and Satan. They all know who Jesus really is and what he will do. In Matthew 8:28-34, before Jesus casted out the demons from a man, these demons said to Jesus in vs. 29, "What have we to do with thee, Jesus thou son of God?" I believe Caiaphas received this vision from demons. In Galatians 5:19-20 it says, "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred.." Since Caiaphas, I believe, was working in the flesh, he was open to witchcraft. Since God is not speaking to him, he was looking for other ways to get answers. Since God is not speaking to him, he was looking for other ways to get answers. That's playing with fire and it is forbidden. In Acts 19:11-19, it talks about how God worked powerfully through Paul by special miracles. In vs. 17 it says, "Fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified." Many people believed and in vs.19 it says, "Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: And they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver." God does not want us to be faithless but faithful. When we are faithful, we believe and do something about it. It caused these people who trusted in witchcraft for many years, some of those books could have been over a thousand years old, but they realized it was wrong to have them or use them, so they all came together and burned them all. The faithful sees the value of God greater than the values of this world. 5,000 pieces of silver if it was Denarii, or a day's wage, would be worth $5.5 million dollars today. If it was talents or a year's wage, it will be worth $1.5 billion dollars today. That's a lot of money, but they saw that God was worth much more. They saw receiving salvation was worth more than their lives. Let's put it into perspective. Imagine if you were about to die, maybe you were lost in the woods and about to die with in an hour. Then someone sees that you need help, and rescues you. That person gets you back to health. You owe your life to this person. If it wasn't for this person you would no longer be alive. This person became your savior and you are willing to do anything for this person. When these people realized Jesus saved them from hell they gave everything to Jesus as the same as that person saving them if they only had an hour to live. Jesus became everything to them. The faithful put God first and loved Him. In Matthew 22:37 it says, "Jesus said unto him, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." The faithful also love others as much as themselves. In Matthew 22:39 it says, "And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." The faithful live with power, love, and sound mind as it says in 2 Timothy 1:7. The faithful works in the spirit as it says in Galatians 5:22-23, "But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance: Against such there is no law." Because Jesus was operating not in the flesh, but of the fruit of the spirit, we read in vs. 54, that he, "Walked no more openly among the Jews." Jesus could have used his powers to destroy all of these troublemakers but instead followed God's way. Jesus knew that his time was not now but it will be soon. The faithful also forgives. Whenever I have a hard time forgiving I go to the cross where Jesus was. Jesus said in Luke 22:34, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." Even in excruciating pain, even in the minutes before death, Jesus prays to God to forgive everyone, even these wicked religious leaders. When I think of how it helps me to understand what I'm going through is nothing compared to what my Master and Savior Jesus Christ went through. We are to live a life of faith in God by living faithfully like Jesus. Living faithfully for God helps us in taking away all of our worries and the evil desires for the love of money and power. Living faithfully will help us to move pass just thinking about ourselves and start to love others. Living faithfully will help us to change our view of value in this world to the true value which lies in Jesus Christ. Living faithfully will help us to live in faith in God all the way until Jesus comes back. How will you live? Faithless or Faithful.
When God created people, it was and still is one of the most incredible creation God ever made. We read in Gen. 2:7, "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground". We are made from dust from this amazing earth. In this rich earth 99% of our bodies are made of these six elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus. The other 1% is: potassium, sulfur, sodium, chlorine, and magnesium. From these elements, He made us complete to have a brain, heart, all the organs, bones, skin, blood, and everything else. Once He made us, the second part of Gen. 2:7 says, "and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul". At that time, God turned us on. Right away, man's heart started pumping and right away went to the brain. The next thing, this man opened his eyes to see God and all of God's creation. How awesome that must have been. God made man intelligent to think, to speak, and to listen. God spoke to this man in Gen. 1:28-30 with instructions to follow and the man was very happy to follow and loved the fact he had a great purpose in life. God gave this mane the name Adam and created a woman, Eve, to be his wife. God told them in Gen. 1:28, "be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth" so He created their bodies to create more people like them. God didn't want us to die but to live forever. God told them in vs.28 to "subdue" meaning to bring under control everything in the world. We were to live in peace with God, with other people, and with all of God's creation.
All of that was possible without sin but all that would not work if somehow sin entered in our lives. What is sin? Sin in Hebrew is "Hata" meaning to go astray. The Jewish law is called "Halakha" which means it provides the proper way or path to live. Sin is straying from the proper path. Just like how God turned us on and gave us life, God also made a way to turn us off if we became sinners. God told Adam in Gen. 2:17, "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die". God made us an intelligent creation, the most intelligent, because our purpose was to be the above all the other creation to take care of them. We were to be like Joseph to Pharaoh to be right under Pharaoh to save everyone in Egypt and everyone else from famine. Just like that, Adam was to be right under God and save everyone and everything in the entire world from anyone or anything that would come to destroy it This intelligence meant choosing the best options, unfortunately, it also meant being able to choose willfully to stray away from the proper way of God. Adam and Eve was like Esau in the bible who didn't really care or valued what he had and sold his first born birth right for a bowl of stew. Adam and Eve fell for the trap of the "lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" found in 1 John 2:16 and sinned. God is holy and just and had to follow through with the judgement of sin, so He implemented a very slow way for us to physically die initially but after the flood, that timeline sped up. In Gen. 6:3 says, "yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years". I wonder if someone takes care of their body perfectly maybe that person will live up to 120 years.
When we die, immediately our soul will leave our bodies and according to Heb. 9:27 and be judged, "and as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgement". Also nobody knows when we will die, but only God knows that appointed time. Our souls will then meet our judge, who is God. Everyone will meet God and there is no exception. Everyone will be judged from the books that has recorded everything we have done as it says in Rev. 20:12. We will be shocked that according to Mark 4:22 that "there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested". Everything will be revealed such as: pride, envy, hypocrisy, backbiting, disobedient to parents, false accuser, lies, theft, whoremonger, deceit, hater of God, etc. We will all agree, as it says in Rom. 3:10, "there is none righteous, no, not one". We can't trick God. Gal. 6:7 says, "Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap". Many many people will hear God, the judge, say according to Matt. 25:41, "Depart from me, ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angel" and that place is hell. Matt. 25:46 says, "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal". Eventually these people will be thrown into the lake of fire according to Rev. 20:15.
Our physical bodies, after we die, starts to breakdown within a few minutes. In the time when Jesus was here 2,000 years ago, many people died at a young age. Many babies died before becoming kids. These people are use to death and have seen enough to understand what happens to a dead body in 4 days. Jesus tells the people in John 11:38 to remove the stone. Lazarus was in this grave, most likely in a cave or a room cut out from a large stone. His body is covered with lots of spices and then wrapped from head to toes with strips of cloths. Just a side note: this method is not the same as embalming like the Egyptian mummies.
Martha wants to stop the removing of the stone and says to Jesus in vs.39, "Lord, by this time, he stinketh; for he hath been dead for four days". She doesn't think this is a good idea and cannot believe that Jesus can bring a dead man back to life. Jesus has done a lot of miracles already and the disciples, Mary and Martha, and lots of people saw first hand. Some people, I believe most, just can't seem to understand how Jesus is doing the miracles. How did He feed 5,000 people with just 2 small fish and 5 small loaves of bread? How did He cure so many people with deadly diseases? How did He heal so may people with major deformities? How did He cast out all of those powerful demons out of the people? People can't seem to believe these are actually miracles. I believe, many are thinking that Jesus is a master magician. Jesus healed the man born blind, the greatest miracle at the time, but hardly anyone saw that. They can see clearly that this one blind man can see, but they are still having a hard time believing it. Because Jesus showed up 4 days after Lazarus died, people are probably thinking He didn't come earlier because raising someone from the dead is even too hard for Jesus. In vs.33 and 38, the bible says Jesus "groan". The Greek word for groan is embrimaomi. This is a verb and it means to be moved with anger. He was moved to anger because He is knows there's great unbelief. He is not pleased. In Heb. 11:6 the bible says, "But without faith it is impossible to please Him". Faith is what pleases God. What is faith? The answer is found in Heb. 11:1 and it says, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen". In Heb. 11:3 it says, "through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear". Martha and everyone do not believe Jesus can bring a dead person, for 4 days, back to life. Do you really believe Jesus did it? What if you were there before this miracle happen? Would that change your mind?
Here's some the reasons his miracle was so hard for people to believe. Our amazing bodies was created with trillions of microbes and about 37 trillions of cells. A few minutes after a person dies, our bodies starts the decay process. Our hearts stop beating, which stops the blood from blowing causing a complete halt of the transport of oxygen to our organs and tissues. The first to go is our brain. In a manner of minutes, the cells in the brain collapses and releases water. Within 3 to 4 days, those trillions of microbes breakdown our bodies and eventually toxic gases like ammonia and hydrogen sulfide gets releases and causes the body to stink. You can see that within 4 days of a dead body, there's too much damage for that dead body to come back to life. The only way for a dead person dead for over 4 days to come back to life is for everything that was damaged to become brand new, in my opinion. This can only be a miracle that God can do. No magician can pull this off.
Jesus tells Martha in vs.40 "said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? God asked Abraham in Gen. 18:14 "Is any too hard for God?" Abraham at 100 and his wife Sarah at 90 had to have a strong faith in God that God will give them a baby. God gave them a healthy baby boy and named him Isaac meaning laughter. Many times we are laughing in faith, because God delivers miracles all the time. God has given my wife and I so many miracles especially given us 4 beautiful kids. Truly just like what Jesus said in Matt. 19:26, "But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible".
Jesus prays to God for this miracle because in vs.42, "that they may believe that thou hast sent me". That was very important for Jesus and it should be also for us. Jesus is the promised Messiah, the savior, to completely conquer sin so we can be right with God again. We all know John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whatsoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life". Our physical bodies decays when we die but our souls goes immediately to see God. Even though Adam and Eve allowed sin to enter their lives, God had another solution and spoke about it back in Genesis 3:15. It says, "And I will put enmity between thee and he woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head and thou shall bruise his heel". God talking about Jesus, our savior, who becomes a man, that gets hurt by Satan, but He will win the war against Satan and sin. He did that by dying on the cross for us and 3 days later, He resurrected from the dead. In Reve. 20:12 we read about another book that will be open. It is the most important book. It is the Book of Life. Remember, without faith, it is impossible to please God. When we believe in Jesus, we are placing our faith in God's way of salvation, and we are saved. When we believe in Jesus, we are born again according to John 3:3. That means because of Jesus, we are forgiven from all of our sins and we are reborn in our soul. In Isaiah 1:18, when our sins are forgiven, it is as white as snow. Imagine being totally clean. That's what Jesus does for us and God accepts the penalty of sins fully paid because of the sacrifice of Jesus. In order for us to do this properly, we need to repent (Acts 3:19) which means to turn from our sinful ways and get back on the proper path to God. We read in Rev. 21:27 "And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life". The only way for our names to be written in the Book of Life is to be without sin and only Jesus was able to do that for us. Praise God!
If your names are written in that sacred Book of Life, we should have the same attitude like the Apostle Paul when he says in Phil. 1:21, "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain". When we accept Jesus as our savior, He gave us a new soul. Our dead decaying soul became brand new. It was a miracle! That is why God has a special place for those that are saved according to 1 Cor. 2:9, "But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him". What God will give to the saved is so amazing we can't even imagine it as it says in Jere. 33:3 "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not".
Jesus cried out with a loud voice in John 11:43, "Lazarus come forth". In vs.44, it says, 'And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot". A great miracle happened when Jesus brought Lazarus back to life, but the greater miracle are those that have their souls saved. Jesus is also calling your name and is telling you to "Come forth". Ask yourself the most important question of your life. Be genuine, because you really know the answer to this. Are you saved? if you don't have Jesus in your life, make sure to ask the Savior to come into your life. Let Him do a miracle in your life then live 100% for Jesus.
In vs.18, we find the distance from Jerusalem, where Jesus was, to Bethany, where Lazarus was, was only 15 furlongs. A furlong is about 606 feet. There are 5,280 feet in 1 mile. When you do the calculation that's about 1.72 miles for 15 furlongs. That would take less than an hour to complete, so that means Jesus was very close to Lazarus. This will be important to remember to understand what Mary and Martha were thinking and why they were so disappointed. I believe they were beyond disappointed to anger. We can sense that in vs.20 where Mary sat sill in the house but Martha went to meet Jesus. May people, Christians and non-Christians, gets angry at God. They feel entitled to get help from God. I'm confused why a non-believer, who claims he doesn't believe in God nor has done anything for God, thinks, at a desperate time in his life when God doesn't answer him, he gets angry with God. That action alone should cause him to acknowledge that he does believe in a god. That' s starting point that can lead him to the bible and to the only True and living God. Sadly, I don't think he will go beyond his anger to God. I'm also confused why a Christian would be angry at God. There are many things that can happen to us or our love ones and some of those can be tragic. When we start to blame God for this and that bad things that happened, then we are on a slippery slope that will cause us to go down to the pit of despair. Some people, once in this pit, can be stuck there for many years. All because of a lack of knowledge about God. Let's look at a few of the attributes of God. I'm getting this list from the resource section in navigators.org. You can see the list of 30 there.
God is Jehovah. God is the great "I am" that possess all authority. (Ex. 3:13-15)
God is infinite. He has no limits (Rom. 11:33)
God is omnipotent. He is all powerful and there is nothing too difficult for Him (Jer. 32:17,18,26,27)
God is good. He only is good and there is no evil (Ps. 119:65-72)
God is love. His love is perfect and there is no hate. (1 John 4:7-10)
God is omniscient. He knows everything so he knows the very best outcome. (Ps. 139:1-6)
God is omnipresent. He is everywhere. (Ps. 139:7-12)
God is wise. He always acts for our good in perfect wisdom in all things. (Prov. 3:19-20)
God is just. He is fair and always does what is right. (Ps. 75:1-7)
God is holy. He cannot sin and doesn't cause anyone to sin. (Rev. 4:8-11)
Hopefully that gave you the correct understanding of our great and holy God. When we remind ourselves of these attributes of God, there's no way we can blame God or get angry at God. Instead it does the opposite, we trust Him more and find love.
Martha meets Jesus and says in vs.21, "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died." What she said is true because Jesus would have healed Lazarus. Jesus tells His disciples in vs.15 that He didn't go earlier for their sake, that they may believe. It was important for His 11 disciples to see this miracle because they will carry on this ministry after him. These special men will go on to live an extraordinary lives for God. 10 our of the 11 will be killed for their faith and the last apostle, John, will be tortured by solitude in a deserted island, but comes back after Jerusalem and Bethan are destroyed in 70 AD. Imagine the great sadness John must have had when writing about this great event because those cities are no more. John was encouraged again when he remembered that in the future there will be a new heaven and new earth. Martha has great faith and believes that even now Jesus can do something vs.22. She didn't now how but knew He can. That's important for us as well. Instead of thinking about all the ways God will provide, we just have to simply have faith that God can do it. We also need to know that God's ways are best and acknowledge that sometimes it is best that God doesn't do anything.
A very good example of this is found in 2 Sam. 12:16-24. King David prays for his sick child to get better. He doesn't eat, he doesn't change his clothes, or takes a bath. He goes to his room every night all night on the floor to pray. He is pleading with God. After a week the child dies, and once David finds out about this, he gets up from the floor, takes a bath, combs his hair, changes his clothes, and worshipped God at the house of God. Did you catch that? He worshipped God instead of getting angry or sad. After he ate some food, his servants were very confused, so they said to King David, "We don't understand this. While the child was still alive, you wept for him and would not eat; but as soon as he died, you got up and ate!" David answered, "Yes I did fast and weep while he was still alive. I thought that the Lord might be merciful to me and not let the child die. But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Could I bring the child back to life? I will some day go where he is, but he can never come back to me." That is a great amazing faith and insight from David. We don't have the answers nor the power, but God does. Whatever answers God give us, our response should be to worship Him. Until that response, we have to pray in desperation like David because he said, "maybe God will be merciful to us." In my experience, God is usually very merciful and have abundantly blessed my family and I.
Jesus quickly responds to Martha in vs.23, "They brother shall rise again." Vs.24, Martha is thinking about a future day when all the believers will rise again in the resurrection. Jesus then says a profound statement in vs.25, "I am the resurrection and the life." Jesus is correcting Martha's view from the future where God will act to the present where Jesus, who is God, will act now. The same God, who will bring a future resurrection, is Jesus, and that's why Jesus say, "I am the resurrection". He is the source of life, natural, spiritual, eternal, and is telling Martha that He has the power to give life Now.
In John 4:23-26, Jesus tells the Samaritan woman at the well, He is the Messiah. They talk about a time in the future. I believe, where the resurrection is taking place vs.23. That verse says, "The true worshippers shall worship the Father in the spirit and in the truth. For the Father seeketh such a worship Him." How awesome it will be in the future where all believers will be worshipping God with total worship and with total truth. It's hard for us to imagine that today, but Jesus said God is looking for such worshippers now. In vs.24, Jesus says, "God is Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." That's the key to worship. Our worship has to come from the spirit. In order for us to do that we have to be in the right truth. In order for us to be in the right truth, we have to be in the Word of God. When we read, meditate, understand, and apply God's living Words, those Words brings us to the truth. This truth, Jesus says in John 8:32 will "set us free". When we are set free from lies or lack of knowledge, we are then able to truly worship God. As we are worshipping, meaning not just singing but talking to God and living for Him, we begin to go beyond our bodies to the spirit or our soul, our true self. It' becomes perfect worship because our spirit is worshipping God the Spirit. Jesus is truly our resurrection, who brings life from the dead. In vs.26, Jesus says, "And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." Jesus asked Martha if she believed this and Martha made a great statement of faith that we all should have in vs.27, she said that she believes Jesus is the Son of God which should come into the world. She knew Jesus was the Messiah. It made a profound impact on her, Mary, Lazarus and many people in Bethany.
We might be in a Lazarus situation in our lives. Everything seems to be dead. There seems to be no hope, but Jesus is our resurrection. he can change our circumstances. We need to got o God like David and believe in full faith and confidence God can deliver if that is the best. God is good, holy, loving, just, and knows all things. Whatever answers he gives us, let's have a response of worship. Many times God will raise the Lazarus situation and will completely raise us back to life. As Jesus said to Marth, let me ask you - "Do you believe in Jesus, the resurrection?"
Sometimes God doesn't make sense or sometimes we think we have God figured out, but we get it completely wrong. These verses about Jesus raising Lazarus back from the grave is one of those events. We read in vs. 1, Lazarus was sick. We don't know what exactly he had, but it was deadly and he was barely hanging on. We find out in vs. 2, that he is the brother of Mary and Martha. These two must have been famous followers of Jesus because they are listed in all four of the Gospels. They were an important part of the ministry of Jesus. These faithful ladies were part of a larger team that took care of all the day to day needs of the ministry, such as eating. Sometimes it was feeding over 120 disciples but it looks like it was mainly for Jesus and the 12 disciples. Mary and Martha are usually with Jesus, but I believe they went back to their home town to take care of their brother. The situation got worst and they knew the only one that can help now was Jesus. They prayed, they fasted, they sought help from others, but nothing was working. They were probably thinking, "We have left everything to follow Jesus, God the Son. There's no way that God would abandon us." They might have even accepted the fact that it was Lazarus time to die, but Jesus has to at least come and comfort them. That's a fair expectation especially with all that they have done. They thought about their difficult situation and thought they figured God and Jesus out. Isn't that so much like us? We think about all the different scenarios and then we go present that to God, pleading with Him that He will answer our prayers, just like the way we thought it through. We should definitely think about the best solution. That's why God gave us an intelligent brain but we have to admit, we make mistakes. As I gave the illustration before, we need to accept what God gives to us with an open palm and not a close fist. We should trust God that He has the best plan for us. In Romans 8:28 it says, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose." God's plan for the true believers are good. When God says "good", think about Genesis when God made everything. He said it was good, meaning it was perfect. God's plan for Christians are perfect. Now that perfect may not be the perfect we are thinking about. In vs. 3, we read the sisters sent someone to Jesus with an urgent message. That message was simple in vs. 3 "He whom thou lovest is sick". Jesus already knew Lazarus was in bad shape, but this message should have cause Him to move. Jesus did react and in vs. 4, He said, "This sickness is not unto death". Did Jesus say Lazarus will not die? We know that's not what He meant because in vs. 14, Jesus said, "Lazarus is dead". There was a deeper purpose. In vs. 4, Jesus says, this sickness is for the glory of God. How is this going to glorify God? He goes on to say that the Son of God might be gloried. This event will cause more people to believe in Jesus, who is Emanuel meaning God with us. The disciples are probably wondering what Jesus will do. What kind of miracle will happen? Is it to feed more than 5,000 people? is it to bring fire down from heaven? Is Jesus going to call His angels to destroy the Roman government? After Jesus said those powerful words, imagine the disappointment when in vs. 6, Jesus stays for two days. These disciples are confused, Mary and Martha are confused, many others are confused, and some of the disciples thinks they figured it out. They think Jesus doesn't want to go back to Judea because He will be stoned to death vs. 8. They can accept that Jesus is afraid because they are afraid. They are failing to understand Jesus is God and can easily destroy His enemies. He is not afraid but He is simply following God's plan in His perfect timing. The disciples are shocked when Jesus tells them, they are going to see Lazarus vs. 7. By this time, Lazarus is dead and people will be mad that Jesus showed up too late. Everyone is confused except Jesus. We may be confused why God would allow certain things to happen but we must remember again that God will work for the good, the perfect way, for those those that love Him and who are called according to God's purpose. God's plan for us, for all of us, according to Jeremiah 29:11 is peace and not evil. This is the reason John 3:16 is so good because Jesus didn't just come for the Jewish people, but He came to save all of us. It say, for God so loved the world. We are to call out to God as it says in Jeremiah 33:3, "Call unto me, and I will answer thee". This is the reason we need to ask Jesus to come into our lives to be saved. The bible says whoever believes in Jesus will be saved. Believe is an action and part of that action is professing or making a proclamation that you have made Jesus your savior and your master. Then a wonderful thing happens. In the second part of Jeremiah 33:3 the bible says, "and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not". Since we know the story of Lazarus, we are not confused, but imagine if you were there at that time not knowing what will happen. You're living in uncertainty, but in a few hours, all the confusion, anger, sadness, frustration all goes away, because one of the greatest miracle just took place. That miracle was so great, the religious leaders believed if they didn't do something to Jesus, they would lose all power and everyone will follow Jesus (vs. 48), Once again, that wasn't the plan of God. God's plan was to save the world and God kept His promise. His plan would be the ultimate sacrifice to bring salvation to all through the precious blood of Jesus. We may not have all the answers, but thank God He does. God is holy, merciful, love, just, and have an awesome perfect good plan for all the true believers. Let us completely trust in God and follow Him, because He knows the way.
When you read vs.19, you can see how weak these religious leaders were - "There was a division therefore again among the Jews for these saying". One group was observing what Jesus said and disregarded the miracles. The other group looked at the miracles of Jesus, especially the healing of a man born blind, but disregarded the words of Jesus. They both were wrong. It is because they based all that Jesus did and said on their own interpretations of God's words. They only had the Old Testaments, but that was enough for them to know about God and His plan of salvation. They made the mistake that instead of God being the final authority of His words, they became the ultimate authority. They viewed other men, who had lots of training in God's words, to have a greater voice than God. This was very dangerous back then and it's dangerous now. Many false religions and cults came out because of this careless approach to God's words. We will talk about these cults at a later date. Today we still have many so called leaders taking God's words out of context and not interpreting it correctly. This causes the people they teach to do strange things. As we learned last week, the true shepherd is Jesus. Where He goes, we must follow. Pastor are lower ranked shepherds simply listening and following the chief shepherd so they will lead the sheep that belongs to Jesus. If this is done correctly, all of God's people will be following correctly, because we all must follow the voice of Jesus. We are to flee from strangers vs.5. We are to not listen to thieves and robbers vs.8 and enter through the door of Jesus vs.9 and be saved. We are to test and approved the words and actions of these lower ranked shepherds or pastors to make sure it is the same as that of Jesus, the chief shepherd. In Rom. 12:2, it says, "And be not conformed to the world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God". We are all sheep that belong to God. The only true shepherd is our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. We are to be like the Bereans in Act 17:11, it says "These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so". As you can see, the followers are also at fault if we are just blindly accepting whatever the pastors says. Can you see that if God's people stays in the bible daily, they will not be easily swayed? A pastor that is teaching incorrectly cannot last in that church. One of my hope is for my family to be strong in the word of God and only follow Jesus. That same hope is for those we minister to.
In vs.22, we see that time has passed and it is not the winter time. At this time, they are having the Feast of the Dedication. For some reason, I see these religious leaders decorating the temple like when you go to a store. When you go to the mall, you will see all the decorations for the different holidays. For some reason, they put the Christmas decorations months before that holiday. That's because Christmas is the biggest money maker for any retail business. Our family store use to make 20% to30% or more of the entire year's sales in just 2 weeks. I could see these religious leaders taking these holidays very seriously because it brought in a lot of money. Isn't that so sad? God's house was never meant to be a business. The church was made to follow Jesus. Jesus tells Peter, the first one to establish a church, in John 21:17 to "Feed my sheep".
Now a funny exchange happens when these leaders finds Jesus vs.24 and surrounds Him. Maybe they are trying to intimidate Jesus. How foolish they are. They ask a question that Jesus already answered many times. They asked "How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly". Notice, they don't ask "who are you?" They ask this most likely because they are looking for Jesus to perform a miracle. They don't believe. If they really believed, they would be standing in a distance. I feel like the festival got boring for them and they wanted some entertainment just to satisfy their evil desires. They were essentially mocking Jesus. Remember, Jesus is God. Another name for Jesus is found in Matthew 1:23 which is Immanuel meaning God with us. Jesus tells them, they don't believe because they are not His sheep vs.26. How sad it will be for these religious leaders when they died. They think and somehow believe they will go straight to heaven. Instead, they will face God the judge (Matt. 25:31-46), who is Jesus, and they will be shocked to hear. "I never knew you" (Matt. 7:21-23). They will be horrified that their names are not found in the Book of Life and they will be thrown into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:15). Instead of seeing their sins according to God's words, they were weighing their sins compared to the good they thought they were doing to the bad.
If you ask almost anyone if they are going to heaven, most will give the answer "yes". They based it on good behaviors. They feel they are more good than bad. When you tell them that God has rules, most are completely taken off guard. For some reason, they feel that God is only loving and doesn't have any types of rules to go to heaven. When you go through just 6 of the 10 commandments, everyone will agree they are a lying thief that is an adulterer and guilty before God. Then if you ask them if they will go to heaven according to God's words, they will simply respond "No". Right there they are corrected, but then you ask them if they knew that God has a plan for salvation. Surprisingly, some people will answer correctly and say it is through Jesus. That shouldn't surprise us because John 3:16 is such a recognized verse, yet most still don't believe. The reality is, it's not about believing for most people, but it's their desire to keep sinning. They don't want to give up the pleasures of this world, which is very temporary, for the rest of eternity with God.
In vs. 27, Jesus says, "My sheep hear my voice and I know them, and they follow me". True believers listen to the voice of Jesus and does it. They are sick and tired of their wicked lifestyle. Thy acknowledge they are a sinner. They ask for forgiveness. They repent, meaning they turn 180 degrees from their sin and do not want that anymore or desire it. They run towards Jesus because they believe Jesus is the only way to save them. So they accept Him and walk through the door of Jesus and become a born again child of God. Jesus goes on to say in vs.28, "And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand". Once you become one that belongs to Jesus, you are protected for life. No one can take away your salvation. By the way, a true Christian will never blaspheme God or walk away from believing in God. In Matthew 7:18, the bible says, "A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit". We can believe with a 100% certainty that once you are saved, you will go to heaven. Jesus confirms it further in vs.29 that we will not be plucked away from God the Father's hand. Stop fearing Satan and stop fearing people, no matter how powerful they are, instead rejoice in God because we are saved and have eternal life all because of our precious Lord and savior, Jesus Christ.
When we read these verses, there are lots of sheep, a shepherd, a hireling - what is that? we will get to that shortly, and the wolf. It's important we keep our focus here for now, but after we understand it, this lesson will have a profound impact in every part of our lives. We see that Jesus is the good shepherd. It's interesting that he chose this instead of a great world leader. We will see shortly why this model of a shepherd verses a world leader is better and what God desires. He is the door, the only door to salvation. We read in John 14:6 - "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one cometh unto the Father, but by me". We have to go through Jesus to be one of His sheep. Once we enter through the door of Jesus, He will always be our shepherd. He will even leave those that are safe and make sure they are well taken care of and look for the one that has gone astray and find that lost sheep (Matt. 18:12). Jesus also put a special marking on his sheep in Eph. 1:13 it states, "you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise". This way it is easy for God to recognize us and it tells our enemies Satan and his demons to be careful messing with us because Jesus is looking after us. His sheep, we Christian, hear his voice (vs.3) and only follows Jesus (vs.4). We run away from strangers (vs.5) because they are not our shepherd (vs.12). Now let's talk about hireling. The basic definition is one that is paid to do a service. I want to mention that most hireling are not bad people. In these verses, we see these hireling paid to take care of the sheep of Jesus. Since He is talking to the Pharisees - John 9:40, we can correctly assume Jesus is talking about them. Jesus, who is God in the flesh, is very angry at the Pharisees and all the religious leaders, for not doing what God has told them about serving His people. They are only looking at position and wealth. In Matthew Henry's commentary, he states regarding these hireling, "Many were not thieves, yet were careless in their duty, and by their neglect the flock was much hurt. Bad principles are the root of bad practices". Some of these hireling were thieves and robbers vs.1, and they didn't enter through the door of Jesus. It is important to understand these hireling have an intention to do harm to God's people. They may or may not realize it, but they are being used by Satan to destroy lives. These hireling are not running away when the wolf comes but helps the wolf. How sad it is that so many of these hireling are in the churches but God will punish them (Mark 9:42). By the way, the wolf is Satan.
Now let's talk about what a true leader for Jesus is suppose to be like. We read in Matthew 20:25-28, that j3esus talked to his disciples about leadership. the disciples, like many of us, have a certain understanding of a hierarchy if leadership. The Roman army was a very organized disciplined group that could defeat almost any enemies, but Jesus tells his disciples not to exercise dominion over each other. Instead, he said if anyone wants to become a leader, he needs to minister or to serve those he is in charge of. Jesus goes on and says anyone that is the chief leader must be a servant to all. Jesus then tells them that even though He is the creator of all things, He came to minister to others and not to have people minister to Him. He came to serve and to ultimately give His life to save us. This is the reason Jesus didn't come down with a heavenly throne with His army of angels. He is showing the proper way to do ministry. If you think about it, it's completely the opposite of most business models. There, you will see the CEO/Owner on top, then below him the next top leader, then below him the directors, then below them the managers, and eventually on the bottom will be the lower or entry level employees. The model Jesus gives is the sheep on top, then below them the lower level teachers, the below them higher level teachers, then below them pastors of different departments, then below them is the senior pastor serving the entire church, and everyone serving the chief shepherd Jesus. Matthew Henry in his commentary for Matthew 20:25-28 said, "Nothing makes more mischief among brethren than desire of greatness". Adam Clarke's commentary said, "The government of the church of Christ is widely different from secular governments. It is founded in humility and brotherly love: It is derived from Christ, the great head of the church, and is ever conducted by His maxims and Spirit".
1 Peter 5:2, Apostle Peter says, "Feed the flock". Pastors are to feed the church the word of God and teach it correctly, everything written in it. that verse goes on to say to give proper oversight but not constraining them. People should have the freedom of grace and mercy, but with the great wide landscape within God's words. These servant leaders are not to be motivated to be in the ministry by filthy riches, but they are to have a ready mind. That mind set is found in 1 Peter 5:1, to be a witness of the suffering of Christ. That means, they have to be ready to suffer for Jesus our chief shepherd. Pastors, who are servants and elders of a church are not to lord over God's heritage (vs.3). They are instead to feed the flock of God and to be an example to the flock. This is an important point because some pastors don't take that calling seriously. Some times they say, "Hey, I'm just like you, and make lot of mistakes, so give me a break". We just read in the bible that these leaders are to be examples. That doesn't mean for these pastors to be dirt poor, with a broken down car, and constantly struggling. I believe pastors should be the example to others of living within their means and loving and protecting their family. That means, they should have plenty of food, nice modest clothing, good reliable cars, and a decent place to live. They should get a fair wage but shouldn't decide on a church because one church pays more than another. I personally believe it's important for pastors to learn a trade because there are times a small church can't give enough money but once again, that shouldn't stop a pastor from serving at that church when God clearly calls them there. Our chief shepherd will take care of us. He will equip those that are called. Eventually the chief shepherd, Jesus Christ, will appear as it says in 1 Peter 5:4, and he will reward these faithful pastors with a crown of glory that never fades.
Now let's finish up by going back to John 10:13. We read "the hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep". How sad it is that these hireling don't care for "God's sheep, but there's good news. We read in vs. 14, "I am the good shepherd and know my sheep, and am known of mine". W have nothing to fear because Jesus our chief shepherd is always looking after us. This promise is not for a specific race of people but for everyone who enters through the door of Jesus. It doesn't matter who you are, what background, or what you have done. You are completely and totally forgiven and belong to our loving savior Jesus Christ. Lastly, if you belong to Jesus and have wandered away, Jesus will find you. he's calling you by name. Go to Him and be made whole again.
Jesus, who is God, says of Himself that He is the door and a shepherd. God has everything and created everything. No one is more powerful than He is. God is in full control and has a perfect plan. Even though we see the world falling apart, we are comforted to know all of this is suppose to happen and we find that in the book of Revelation. These are signs that soon and very soon, Jesus will come back. Why? It's because God loves us and has chosen to love us even when we don't love Him. Those that love Him and believes in Jesus are promised eternal life. But why Jesus? Why not some other way? Why not through good deeds?
Let's look at doors. let's imagine as we open each door, it leads to a certain destination. One door can be to fame, another riches, another happiness, and another physical health. I feel Youtube is like that. You can type in anything and you will see tons of videos people have made of their opinions on that subject. As you click on it, it's like opening that door and that will lead you to other videos. You could utterly spend you whole life opening the doors to all these videos and still not be able to see all of them. We have so many doors to choose from because we live in the information age. Even though our minds gets filled up, we are left empty. We then look for meaningful doors about life and death and how to help others. Eventually we all reach the door of Jesus, but we are afraid to open it. So many other doors talked very negative about Jesus and they don't like the fact that He said He is the only way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the God the Father, except through Him. Some people may never open that door, but let me tell you, that door will be locked for them when they die. Everyone that does will remember that door and will desperately try to open the door of Jesus but it will not open. The only door for those that rejected Jesus is the door to judgement. By the way, everyone will meet Jesus, but on that day, these unbelievers will see Jesus as the judge. They will give all the reasons why they should be in heaven. One of the greatest lie and what most people will say is they did more good than bad. They compare themselves with others and say, I was no different than anyone else. Romans 3:10 says, "As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one". There people will be judged on everything they did on earth and will clearly see just how evil they were. Matthew 10:26 says, "There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed and hid that shall not be known". Everyone will admit they are guilty. All those years of wasted life going from one door to another door is all our choices. We can't blame others. In Galatians 6:7 it says, "Be not deceived, God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap". Jesus will then asked for the Book of Life to be opened. In Rev. 20:15, the bible says, "And whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast in the lake of fire".
Now let's answer the question, why Jesus and why not any other way. After Adam and Eve sinned, God made a way to forgive our sins by sacrificing a lamb (Lev. 4, 5,6). At first, people were very sad that an innocent lamb had to die for their sins, but people became more corrupt and turned away from God. God didn't want anymore animals to die needlessly and He wanted people to be forgiven once and for all of their sins, so the only way it could be done was to send Jesus, God Himself, to become the sacrifice lamb for us (Heb. 9:27-28). He was born as a human child but without sin because Mary was still a virgin. Jesus is the only one that lived a sinless and perfect life (1 Peter 2:21-22). This is important because God will not accept a lamb with any defects. Jesus volunteered to suffer for us and to die for us (Matt. 20:28). All because He loves us. When He died on the cross, He fulfilled 30 prophecies from the Old Testament. God always loved us and planned this salvation for many years. Satan was completely defeated when Jesus rose from the dead three days later (Luke 24:1-7). Jesus is our good shepherd who completely took the power away from Satan. He keeps Satan and all of his demons away from any of His people, the believers, His sheep. Satan has no power against Jesus and His followers.
God gave Adam and Eve a choice because he didn't make us like robots. We have free will and thank God for that. God has also given us free will to choose Jesus or not. God is aware of all the thieves and robbers out there to distract us. In John 10:10, Jesus said, "the thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy; I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly". Jesus is the door to salvation. Jesus said in vs.9, "I am the door; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture". Did you catch that? Not only are you saved and safe, but you can go in and out and find pasture. That means, you will find freedom of peace, joy, love, and much more. It's a freedom knowing Jesus, our great shepherd, is always protecting us. Satan is unable to touch us because Jesus has already defeated him.
Once we open His door, we belong to Jesus and find true worth and happiness. We don't need to open any other doors, because he will lead us to all the doors that glorifies God. Once we belong to Jesus, we are able to hear His voice. Jesus says in vs.4 "And when He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them and the sheep follow Him; for they know His voice". Jesus says in vs.3 that He calls you by name. Isn't it a great blessing that we are in His family - safe and secure. There are many that are standing at the door of Jesus not knowing if or why they should open the door. We need to tell them the why and the wonderful blessings that follows. I encourage you to share this good news and to live more abundantly because that is what Jesus desires for us.
We read in vs.34 this man, healed from his blindness, is cast out of the temple because he defends Jesus. He doesn't know Jesus personally but what he knows leads him to say in vs.33, that Jesus is from God. During his interaction with these Pharisees, the leaders of God's temple, he realizes quickly that it didn't matter what he or any one said of Jesus, all they wanted was bad reports to kill Jesus. This simple man, not trained like these men in God's words, could see more clearly what God wanted. I think at some point in their conversation, this man at some point in their conversation, this man decided he wanted nothing to do with their teachings, even if it meant not being able to go God's temple. A place of worship, a church, is great but if God is not in that place, can you really call it God's church? No. We have to go where God is. Sometimes there's so much emphasis on a building of a church that some people will think they are worshipping a building. God is definitely not happy about that because in Ex. 20:3 one of God's 10 commandment say, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me". Where is the temple of God that He dwells in? We find that answer in 1 Cor. 6:19 "Know ye not that your body in the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you". Our bodies have to be saved by Jesus by believing in Jesus. We become new as it states in 2 Cor. 5:17 "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new." Our bodies becomes a Holy temple that God the Holy Spirit lives in for the rest of our lives. He will produce beautiful results that will be the same for everyone he lives in found in Gal. 5:22, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness". God the Holy Spirit has given us the sweet loving characters to live a life pleasing to God. All wee have to do is simply be led by Him. He is our good shepherd. In vs. 35, we see Jesus taking the time, out of His busy day, to find this man because He heard he was cast out. He became an outcast. I think Jesus goes to him to comforts him and to show him that even though he is now labeled an outcast by man's religious system, he is welcomed in to the true house of God that no man can control. Jesus ask him, "Do you believe on the Son of God?" This simple man responds in vs.26, "Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him?" This is a man ready to follow God. He doesn't want to waste his life anymore. You could see that this man wants to serve God. Jesus answers in vs.27, "Thou has both seen Him, and it is He that talketh with him". This man has never seen Jesus but only heard him and felt His touch when putting the clay on his eyes. He probably recognized the voice of Jesus right away, but now that Jesus makes Himself known as not only the Healer but the Son of God, this man is overwhelmed an immediately in vs.38 says, "Lord I believe" and worships Jesus. This was the greatest day of this man's life. He truly hit the jackpot. This is what it's like whenever someone believes in Jesus as it states in John 3:16, he will not perish but have everlasting life. Then in vs.39, Jesus gives an important teaching, "For judgement I am come into this world". Jesus will be our judge and is given all authority by God the Father. John 5:22 say, "The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgement unto the Son". When people die, those not saved, will meet Jesus the judge who will have the final say if they go to heaven or hell. Jesus will also judge Satan and cast him out found in John 12:31, "Now is the judgement of this world: Now shall the prince of this world be cast out". If God wanted everyone to perish then he would never have sent Jesus. His plan was for salvation. Let's read John 3:17-18 "For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved. he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God". For those that believes is Jesus, they are saved and will not face judgement but will automatically enter into heaven after we die. Jesus continues "that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind". These verses are talking about our hearts. If you really want to see God, we have to have a pure heart found in Matt. 5:8, "Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God". We have to work on our hearts to make sure it's being cleansed of all the filth and grime not pleasing to God. Just like drinking a pure clean refreshing water, God is looking for a pure heart. The more we get closer to God the more the light of God is shining on all of our sins. We realize what a sinner we are and how blind we are without God. The more we do that, God will lift us up found in James 4:10, "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up". People that does the opposite of these are prideful and with polluted hearts. They think they are getting closer to God and think their eyes are open but they are far from God. These sneaky Pharisees listen in on this conversation and said to themselves in vs.40, "Are we blind also?" They should have asked - Are we those that see and made blind? Jesus knowing their thoughts responds to them in vs.41, "If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, we see; therefore your sin remaineth". Their pride and polluted heart will make these leaders impossible to be saved unless they change. Even if these leaders claim Jesus is the way to salvation, if they didn't change, they will all face Jesus the judge after they die. They will come to a sad reality that even though they lived a very comfortable and lavish life on earth for 100 years or less, they will face eternity in the lake of fire because their names are not in the Book of Life. In Rev. 20:15, "And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire". Let's choose to be living like the temple of God where the Holy Spirit lives in our bodies, producing the Fruit of the Spirit, making us humble with a pure heart to keep seeing God.
The neighbors in vs.8, didn't seem like good neighbors. They have seen this man for many years, ever since he was born yet now they have a hard time believing he is the same blind man. Why? It's because no one has ever seen or heard of a person being born blind being healed. I'm sure this awesome news spread quickly, maybe even to all the world. As these so called neighbors are arguing vs.9, this simple man that once was blind, says simply "I am He." they all stop arguing then turns to this man and ask "How did your eyes open?" As soon as this man said it was Jesus who healed him, everything changed. We will find out a little later why. You can't really blame these people because they are afraid. fear is something we have to deal with. That's why 1 John 4:4, "Greater is He who is in me, than he that is in the world" is a powerful verse. They asked where Jesus was but the man didn't know. Then in vs.13, they took this man to the Pharisees, once again because of fear, and quickly went back to their regular lives. They didn't want anything to do with this man because he mentioned the name of Jesus. How sad it is that so many people wants to run away from the name of Jesus. Most people don't want to have anything to do with our Savior Jesus Christ. What did Jesus do to them that was so bad? It's not what Jesus did to them because Jesus only did good to them. Jesus gave His life for the whole world and everyone can believe in Him and be saved (John 3:16). It's the fear of those more powerful than them if someone believes in Jesus. If you look around the world you will see that Christians are the most persecuted, all because the name of Jesus. In vs.14, it states this miracle happened on the Sabbath day. I personally think Jesus, who is God, purposefully did many miracles on the Sabbath day, not to make the religious leaders angry, but to wake them up spiritually to go past religion and to have a relationship with God. God doesn't want them to have an empty heart and mind just following rules, but he wants them to think and understand God's heart. These leaders could have been powerfully used by God but instead they become part of prophecy that God's own people will reject Him. the Pharisees asked this man, how he received his sight. This man doesn't seem to be afraid of these leaders. That didn't matter because by now, these leaders are sue to miracles happening and they knew only Jesus was doing it. In vs.16, we read about a division that happens. One sides say Jesus is not of God because he is healing people on the Sabbath but the other side says a sinner cannot do miracles, so in another words, Jesus must be from God. They stopped and asked this man in vs.17, what does he think of Jesus. I'm not sure why they would ask him this, but all ears were on this simple man's answer. He says Jesus is a prophet. Then immediately in vs.18, they doubt that this man was even blind. They refuse to believe Jesus is the Messiah. These foolish religious leaders called this man's parents to come. I'm sure as they waited, the arguing among these intelligent but stubborn leaders, grew louder and louder. When the parents came, these leaders only had two questions in vs.19. Is this your son who was born blind? If so how does he see now? We find that the parents were afraid of the Jews found in vs.22. These silly Jewish leaders announced before that if anyone confesses that Jesus is Christ, they will be put out of the synagogue. They will be excommunicated. That meant they couldn't go to the temple to pray to God or offer sacrifices. Some of them had businesses in the temple area. That didn't stop people like the disciples to keep following Jesus. For these followers, they already felt rejected by these leaders and probably already excommunicated. Following God is always better than following people. I would rather choose Jesus than having this whole world. How about you? In vs.20-21, the parents does acknowledge that this man is their son and he was born blind. They then said, they don't know how the man was healed because of fear. Can you imagine God answering your impossible prayer request to give sight to their blind son? For a parent, one of the prayers they keep praying to God is to help their kids. It's heart breaking when parents find out their child has a defect, especially blindness. I'm not sure if they even prayed for healing but I'm sure they all had many nights when they cried because of their child's blindness. They didn't see how their son could even make a living. Most likely these parents were struggling because many were very poor. It must have been even more heart breaking to tell their son they don't have enough food for him, and eventually this blind kid, I believe, became a beggar. Can you see that this once blind man was so use to people rejecting him? I also think this man had faith that one day God could do the impossible and heal him. Jesus heals this man, I believe, because he had faith. Look at how he stands up for Jesus. These frustrated leaders are trying desperately to find a reason to kill Jesus. Their intimidation tactics doesn't seem to work on this man. They called the man again in vs.24, and says "Give God the praise, we know that this man is a sinner". They some how cross examined everyone and said with confidence that they have come to a conclusion Jesus is a sinner. That's a strange conclusion when they were suppose to give glory to God that this man is healed. They knew that if they acknowledge that God healed him through Jesus they would be honoring Jesus. They gave this man a strange response but this simple man responds in vs. 25, "Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind. Now I see". It seems to me this man was healed also of his spiritual eye sight. This man is the only one in the whole room praising God for Jesus healing him. His parents should have been strong to also give praise to God for what Jesus did. That was a gift from God worth more than all the money, power, and fame in this world yet, they couldn't give God the glory because of a few angry men. Their son, on the other hand, is given wisdom from God because he is truly worshipping God. These angry leaders don't get the response they wanted and go back to questioning in vs. 26. They repeat the question of hos did Jesus open his eyes. Now the man sees clearly that they want to harm Jesus and all this was to force him to give a bad report about the person that healed him. In vs.27, he ask them "Do you also want to be his disciple?" This man has no problem stating that he is now a disciple of Jesus. These wicked leaders put him down and said something they thought was more powerful. They said in vs.28, they are disciples for Moses. They have no idea that Moses is a disciple of God who is Jesus. Look at how God gives this man wisdom and starts teaching these angry men. Let's look at vs.31, "Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth His will, him He heareth". This man is telling these leaders, Jesus is not a sinner but someone who worships God and does God's will. In vs.32, this man challenges these leaders and ask "Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind." That has never happened and everyone knows it. This simple man comes up with his own conclusion and says it in vs.33 "If this man were not of God, he could do nothing." This man is fully convince Jesus is the Messiah, the savior of the world, but for these leaders, they reject it. They quickly kick this man out, but secretly sends out some Pharisees to keep an eye on this man. We don't even know the name of this man, but what an incredible testimony. He was blind but because of the touch of Jesus, he was healed physically and spiritually. This man received the love of God that transformed him to be a disciple of Jesus. Are you going to be like the Pharisees to keep rejecting the truth? How about the parents who didn't worship God and His impossible gift because of fear? Or will you be like this man who was the only one in the room to worship God because Jesus healed him and gave him a new life?
It seems like the disciples of Jesus believed something that the bible doesn't teach. It looks like this corrupt teaching was taught by the religious leaders. Look at vs.34, "They answered and said unto him, thou was altogether born in sins and dost thou teach us?" These people that worked so hard to read and understand God's words, somehow got side tracked and began to go beyond what God's intended meaning to twist it. Imagine how many people were taught this lie and suddenly their words are taken to be God's words. The hearers has to wake up too. They can't be simple and love the simplicity of just listening to a teaching and follow. In Proverbs 1:22 it says, these are fools that hates knowledge. We need to study the bible and see what it says. These leaders might be referring to the birth of Esau and Jacob. In Gen. 22:23, God says, "Two nations are in thy womb...the elder will serve the younger". God knows the future of these boys of Isaac. god knows everyone's future. God doesn't say anything about sins Esau did before he was born nor is God saying anything about the sins of the parents. Esau is born healthy. He is born hairy but that doesn't mean he was more of a sinner than Jacob before he was born. Parent's sins are interesting, because we do rea about generations being cursed, but Jesus clarifies a misunderstanding. This is important because we should see people the way Jesus, who is God, sees them. Jesus says in vs.3, sin was not the cause of this man being born blind, instead the true reason is "that the works of God should be made manifest in him." In another words, so God can work in his life so God can do amazing things in his life. Few people really understand this. Joni Erikson Tada, a quadriplegic, can't do many things by herself. she relies on her husband, yet that didn't stop her to live fully for God. She's an author, painter, singer, leads a global ministry called Joni and Friends, on the radio, speaker, a strong advocate for the handicap, and encourages and gives hope to millions around the world. People like her is who Jesus is referring to. When you keep reading this chapter, it's apparent that this blind man, healed by Jesus, is also on the right track of living fully for God. When these people who have less than us is ding so much for God, it encourages us to follow God. Jesus said in vs.4, while it is day, we must walk before no man can work. What do you think this means? I believe this is talking about his time on earth and our time on earth before we die or gets raptured. Jesus did His part of making the way to salvation so He finished His leg of the relay race. Now He passed that baton to all true believing Christians. We are to live fully for God and do what He wants each of us to do. Some are called to start a ministry and some are called to help in a ministry. All of us have a unique calling that no one else can do except that person. Just like each snow flake is different, we are too. Jesus said in vs.5, "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." Jesus passed the baton to us and gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit. In vs.7, we read Jesus headed this man so he can see. That is a good picture for us to help people be born spiritually blind to see.
Jesus said in vs.51, "If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death." Let me ask you, is what Jesus said too hard to believe? If we viewed these words coming from God, it would be much easier, right? When God told Adam in Gen. 2:17 to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we believe it because it is God. God said "For in the day that thou eatest there of thou shalt surely die." When God says something, it will happen. Did Adam and Eve die? Yes! The first thing that died was the most important thing, a bond, that connects us to God. We are the only one in all creation He did this to. It is a relationship with God so close but can only be achieved if people area without sin. The bible says in Gen. 2:7 that God "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; a man became a living soul." I don't read anywhere in the bible where God did that to anything he created except to man. In Gen. 1:27 the bible says, "God created man in His image, in the image of God created man; mal and female create He them." No other creation is made in God's image. We read in Gen. 1:26, "and God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." No other creation except for man did God say to have dominion. Dominion means master but since we are under God, we are to take care of all of God's creation. We were made to be God's care takers of the earth and rule over them. We are suppose to represent God and be His ambassadors to all living things in this world. The image of God is made up three parts because God is three in one. When God said "Let us" He is talking to the Holy Spirit and the Word, which is Jesus Christ. In 1 John 5:7 we read, "for there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit: and these three are One." The Word is also spoken of in John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word. and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Then in John 1:3 it says "All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made." Who is this Word that is God and everything was made by Him? Who is this Word that breathed life into man as it states in John 1:4 "In Him was life; and the life was the light of men." We see there was a human witness to who the Word was. John the Baptist said in John 1:5 "John bare witness to Him, and cried saying, 'This was He of whom I spake. He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for He was before me." Then finally we read in John 1:17 "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." The Word is Jesus. Jesus is the One that made everything, He is God, and He is One of the Three that made man in His image. By the way, in 1 Thess. 5:23 we see the three parts to the image of God, "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." When man and woman sinned, they died immediately in spirit or "Rauch" in Hebrew meaning breath. Our spirit was necessary to communicate with God - consciousness or in another words, with the spirit we could understand God and freely talk to God. Sin automatically killed that. The spirit represents the Holy Spirit. Our soul is our self-consciousness. That's who you are. We will continue to live after our physical bodies dies. Our souls lives forever but after sin our souls died from our purpose to live according to the plan of God, but instead seeking our own plans. God's plan leads to life. Our plans leads to death. Our soul represents God the Father. Jesus represents our bodies but He also represents the bodies we will have in heaven, our new resurrected bodies. Now let's go back to John 8 and pick it bac up in vs.51. Jesus, who is God, says "If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death." What does God mean by this? I believe it means our spirit, soul, and body will no longer be dead but alive and will never die. These religious leaders couldn't believe Jesus. They refused to believe Jesus. If these teachers of God's words searched the scriptures, they would find many verses pointing to Jesus as the Word. Let's talk about some of them: Of the see of Abraham (Gen. 12:3), from the tribe of Judah (Gen. 49:10), born in the line of King David (Is. (:6-7), born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), born of a virgin (Is. 7:14), rejected by His own (Is. 53:3), entered Jerusalem as a King riding on a donkey (Zech. 9:9), sold for 30 pieces of silver (Zech. 11:12), accused by false witnesses (Ps. 35:11), crucified with criminals (Is. 53:12), pierced through hands, feet, and side (Zech. 12:10), and no bones broken (Ps. 34:20). Since Jesus is clearly God, isn't it amazing that God would come down to a terrible messed up world where sin has caused so much death? Why? That is what makes God so beautiful. He truly loves us, even if He has to get hurt for us and die for us, as it states in John 3:16 (For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." If there was any other way to do this, God would have done it, but there wasn't. That is why Jesus says in John 14:6 "I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." Jesus gives us more promises. God says in Rom. 10:9 "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus; and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Since God saved us, we are forgiven. God says in Is. 1:18 "Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as now." We are completely clean because of believing in Jesus. We start to live differently. We start to be more like Jesus. The bible says in Phil. 1:21 "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." We are living for God and fulfilling His plans in our lives. When we die, God says we are precious. god says in Psalms 116:15 "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." Then after we die, God has a wonderful place He prepared just for us. God says in 1 Cor. 2:9 "But as it is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." If you accepted Jesus in your life, you are saved, you are loved, and God has prepared a place in heaven more amazing that you can't even imagine it.
Do you ever dream about living forever? Many people throughout history, even the very beginning of civilization have been fascinated with the fountain of youth. One of my favorite movies is "Indiana Jones and the last crusade". They are in search to find the cup that Jesus drank from. In that fictional story, they said, whoever drinks from that cup will stay young. Who wouldn't want to look and feel like a 20 year old when they are 50 or older. In Genesis, we read about the Tree of Life and that really existed. When you eat from that tree, you will live forever. I have good news for you. Oh, by the way, you have to be a True Christian and make it to the new earth found in Rev. 22. There, you will find not only Trees of Life but a super clear River of Life coming from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1). If you love delicious fruits, you will find 12 different kinds and they will be the best you ever tasted. Now let's go back to the story in John 8. When you read vs.34-47, Jesus tells these so called religious leaders who their real spiritual father is. In vs.44, Jesus says they are following the example of their father the Devil. Jesus points out they want to kill him. Jesus say they would rather hold on to lies to keep their lust for power instead of following the truth. If they would wake up and know the truth, the truth will set them free (vs.32). Well that statement by Jesus, who by the way knows everything they are thinking, was like kicking a bee hive. It made them very mad. Look at what they said in vs.48. They said Jesus was a Samaritan and have a demon. They are now name calling. I heard in the news recently, 2 groups of people yelling at each other "Black lives matter" and the other group "White lives matter". Well that ended with gun shots and one woman dying. All because the name calling got out of control. You can almost see the leaders angry and their faces red. Jesus on the other hand is calm but strong. If anyone thinks Jesus is weak and don't correct wrong, they need to reread the bible. Jesus is also giving us an example for us. He list facts. Vs.49, He states, He doesn't have a devil and then tells them His Father, who is God, honors Him unlike them. He tells them in vs.50 that He doesn't seek His own glory. Now let's stop here. These teachers of God's law have become very rich by taking advantage of people that are trying to follow God. They prey on people's ignorance. They love luxury. They even had the support from the Roman government. You could see, leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus, how powerful in politics these religious leaders were. Jesus is the Word of God. He made everything. Jesus could have come here on a golden chariot accompany by millions of angels. He could have made a huge temple made of all of the most expense stones and diamonds and comfortably lived there. He instead was born in a smelly stable. His crib was a manger. he did that, I believe, to not give himself glory. He kept on living this way to be an example for us and to tell us, He truly loves us and cares for us. Our mighty Jesus even washed His disciple's smelly dirty feet. he told us to humble ourselves and serve one another. Then Jesus gives a hidden gem in the bible in vs.51. fir of all, when the bible says something twice, that's like underling and stating this is important. When you're talking and if you want to underline something important, you might say - hey everyone this is important, listen up. You just underlined your words in the air as they are coming out. Isn't that cool? Jesus says "Verily, verily". Then he tells us a mystery that we need to solve. He says, "If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death." We have to realize He is not talking about our physical bodies as it is now, We have to think about what we al have that will live forever. That will be our souls. What's interesting about our souls is what we do here on earth determines if we see death or not. Did you catch that? It didn't say He will not die. Jesus is talking about seeing death. Luke 12:20 God tells a foolish person living for his own pleasures, that night his soul shall be required. In Ge. 9:27 it states, "It is appointed unto men (that means everyone) once to die but after this the judgement". After we die, we meet God. In John 5:29 it stays, "And shall come forth: they have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." Let's stop here and ask, is there anyone that will go to heave by being good without Jesus? I'm afraid not. In Rom. 3:10 it says "As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one." Our life will be on full review since God knows everything. Revelation 20:12, can be a scary verse, it states, "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the Books were opened. And another Book open; which is the Book of Life; and the dead were judge out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works." In Mark 4:22, it says nothing is hidden. In Matt. 10:26, it says, everything will be revealed. We will all stand before God guilty. God will then open the Book of Life to see if your name is in it. If it is not, God will say, found in Matt. 25:41, "Depart from me, ye curse into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." This is where our souls will have eternal death. In Matt. 25:45 it says, "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into everlasting life." It gets worst. In Rev.20:15, those not found in the Book of Life will be cast into the lake of fire. Ok, I think we can all see this is bad. Let's go back to vs.51 in John 8. Jesus said if a man keep my saying, that means if we obey His words. Jesus said in John 14:6 "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the father except through me." Jesus is the only way. He is the answer to solve this mystery. Rom. 10:9 shows us how, "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." There you have it. That will get your name written in the Book of Life. Because of this joy, our life here, is transformed. We being to do good because as it states in Phil. 1:21, "For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain."
Everyone in his world has a father whether they realize it or not. There are over 7.8 billion people living in this world at this time and everyone of us has a biological father. Some of these fathers have married the child's mother, yet we have millions of fathers who have abandon their children. Many of these fathers easily moves on not thinking about the consequences. Here's some tragic stats about fatherless homes:
85% of youth currently in prison grew up in fatherless homes
7 out of 10 youths in juvenile correctional facilities comes from fatherless homes
Children without a father are 4x more likely to live in poverty
Children without a father are 2x more likely to drop out of school
Girls are 4x more likely to become a mother before the age of 20
57% black, 31% Hispanic, and 20% whites comes from fatherless homes
74% of Americans believe that a fatherless home is the most significant and family problem facing the country
There are many more stats but I think you see the danger of a fatherless home. Larry Elder says fatherless homes is the #1 issue for the black community. I believe it is a growing problem for everyone. If these fathers would have stayed with the family and worked hard to support it, I believe, many of these problems would have been resolved. You can almost hear the cries throughout this world yearning for a father.
Everyone has a spiritual father as well. Our spiritual fathers, I believe, will play more of a significant factor for anyone than their biological fathers. When we start to discover our significance in this world, then we are looking for a higher answer. Sadly, even in this area, many people are looking for the wrong spiritual father. Unlike the fatherless homes, our spiritual fathers never leaves us. Who are these spiritual fathers? We read in these verse that there are only two: God or the Devil. Jesus, who is God the son, speaks the truth to these people. Sometimes the truth hurts. It can be offensive, but if it is the truth, we need to put aside our feelings and explore this area, even if you don't want to travel in it. When the truth is spoken by the ultimate source, Jesus, then we need to put on our hard hats, grab his hand, and see clearly everything as He shows us the truth, even though He will show many of our flaws. Ok, are you ready to see an example of this?
I believe, it will be an eye opening journey. Alright, put on your hard hats and let's join Jesus. We see in vs. 31 that Jesus is trying to teach those that believe in Him. He tells them if they want to be His disciples, if they want to follow Him, they need to obey His teaching. He says, the truth will set up free. That statement really bothers a few of them. I believe, some of the religious leaders are instigating this opposition. They state that they have never been enslaved and they have special access to God because they are the children of Abraham. Jesus looks at them and knows that some people are confused. He sees the evil motives of these leaders trying desperately to trap Jesus at His words. Jesus explains further starting in vs.34 that everyone is a slave to sin if you sin. No one can deny that, since everyone sins. He says a key truth in vs.36. Jesus said if the son, Jesus, sets you free, you are free indeed. People don't understand that statement until later in the book of Acts, where people hear the gospel in many languages and understands that Jesus paid for our sins and completely set us free. The proper response when hearing about this great news should be like what we read in Acts 2:37. They were deeply convicted and said "Brother, what should we do?" Peter replies in vs.38, "Turn from your sins, and turn to God and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."
Let's go back to John 8 and pick it back up in vs.37. Jesus agrees they are descendants of Abraham but points out they are following the advice of their true father (spiritual). This is the reason they are thinking of killing Jesus instead of accepting His words of truth. Jesus says in vs.38, that He saw them clearly for who they are when He was with His Father in heaven. They are not following Abraham's example. Abraham had a great respect and fear towards God. His faith in God led him to follow God where ever and whenever. Abraham's simple, yet powerful faith, pleased God to bless His children. His children would be people like him, people following God by faith. These people associated themselves to Abraham by bloodline yet what God wanted is for them to have a genuine faith in God. If they believed in God and feared the words of God, then their lives are to be people more like the characteristics of God. They would especially practice the greatest of these found in 1 Cor. 13, which is love. They would have loved instead of doing the opposite which is hate. Hate leads to killing. Instead of these leaders yielding to The truth and looking at it through God's love, they are filled with hatred. These leaders replied that their true father is God. Jesus corrects them in vs.42, that is God was their father, they would have love Jesus. Jesus points out in vs.43, that they don't understand what He is saying because they are unable to. He then shows us who their real father is.
Hold on to your hard hats tightly because it's going to be dark here. Jesus says in vs.44, they are children of the Devil. Let's look at all the proof. They love to do evil just like the Devil. Jesus points to Satan and says the Devil was a murderer from the beginning and always hated the truth. There is no truth in him. He is a liar and the father of lies. Jesus then looks at these corrupt leaders and says in vs.45, they naturally don't believe in the truth and that's why they don't believe in Jesus. Can anyone of them accuse Jesus of any sin? They can't but that doesn't stop them to continue to hate Jesus and the truth He spoke. Since they don't listen to the words of God, Jesus proves to them, they are not children of God but children of the Devil. Those are some harsh words but they were all true.
Who is your spiritual father? Who do you want as your spiritual father? If you said God, then let's follow what Peter said in Acts: Turn from your sin, turn to God, accept Jesus in your life, and received the Holy Spirit.
I have often thought of why someone will accept Jesus and why some don't. It's great when I see people raising their hands to receive salvation. It's usually a handful of people. The leaders go to them and pray for them. They help them to pray to repent of their sins and accept Jesus as their Lord and savior of their lives. Now that I look back at the many retreats and revivals I was fortunate to be involved in, I believe it would have been better to also include a time with the new believers to ask tough questions. I can see now that knowledge of salvation for a new believer is completely different than a believer that has been saved for many years. I would also add that it is very different from a church goes not really studying the bible to a believer involved in the church reading God's words regularly. This is why I believe in discipleship. Jesus said in vs.31 "You are truly my disciples if you obey my teachings." A disciple is someone who follows the teacher and does what he or she does. That's powerful yet very scary as well. You don't want people to be a disciple of you. No, we are to point people to Jesus. We are to be like the moon that reflects the sun. The more we follow Jesus and tell people to follow Jesus, the more those that are our disciples will be disciples of Jesus. Jesus is perfect, we are not.
Jesus give a great lesson to the young believers in vs.31. The people have decided to follow Jesus and listening carefully to what He said to live correctly. Jesus says they need to obey His teachings to be His disciples. That sounds like common sense but you really need to think about it. To be a disciple of Jesus, we have to be committed to His teaching as anyone wanting something badly. Take for example an athlete. Let's say someone decides he wants to be the best basketball player. He starts this journey to be a true disciple of the sport. He reads as many books on it. Reading, rereading, taking tons of notes, memorizing, and constantly practicing what he read. Those books will show lots of wear and tear. They will have lots of tabs, high lights, and lots of notes. You will see millions of videos and start to find tune your skills. You get excited when all those things you learned is paying off on the court, but yet you are not satisfied. You read about great players like Jordan or Kobe and their dedication to hard work. You spend hours on the court. You take at least 1,000 free throw shots daily, yet you're still not satisfied. You go to basketball camp and realize there are so many that are better than you. You put the work in and get better. Each year you start to rise to become one of the best at the camp, yet you're still not satisfied. You get drafted to the NBA, and you begin to see this dedication to being a true disciple to basketball paid off, yet you're not satisfied, because this is just the beginning.
That's how I feel about being a true disciple for Jesus. Can we be so dedicated to Jesus as someone is to basketball? Yes! It's encouraging to hear those strong Christians who dedicated to serve God, even when they become a professional athletes. These extraordinary athletes become stars and have a voice to shar Jesus to the entire world. Some of them do. As a disciple for Jesus, one of the greatest things we need to do is to be set free. Jesus said in vs.31, "the truth will set you free". What we believe in is very important. Everyone holds to some kind of truth. What you believe in will either free you or enslave you. Jesus goes on to say in vs.34, "Everyone who sins is a slave to sin".
We need to ask - what is sin? Sin is simply disobeying God. Let's look at Gen. 2:16-17. God gave a choice to Adam and said to not eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God gives this command knowing that it can be broken. This command is different than any other time in history, because Adam and Eve are sinless. The consequence will be great since it will impact the entire world. When Adam and Eve decided to eat that forbidden fruit in Gen. 3:5, we see what they were thinking. Satan says to them, they will become like God knowing good and evil. They knew God made them. They were amazed at God. They wanted to be more like God, but it might have seem tot hem that it would take many more years to be more like God. They probably didn't have any wrong motives to be like God, because it's a natural reaction of a child wanting to be more like their parents. Where they went wrong is their approach to get there. They were tempted to take a short cut and immediately get there if they simply ate the fruit. Even if you desires are correct, we can sin by taking the wrong actions to get there. They reasoned in their minds that it was right to disobey God to get closer to God. They should have focused on how wrong disobedience was. That disobedience was sin and that led to separation from God instead of getting closer to God. That sin led them to hide and then lie. That led to blaming others and eventually to rebellion towards God. Sin is not worth it.
As you can see, sinning makes us a slave to sin. Jesus said, once again, the truth will set up free. He says in vs.36, "If the Son sets you free, you will be indeed be free." Jesus is saying the Son, which is Jesus the son of God, is the only one that can free us from sin. I want you to remember, God is always in control. Some people will argue that God shouldn't have put that tree there in Genesis. They think God was foolish to trust people because the feel we will always disappoint God. Those people think they are smarter than God, but that is completely wrong. God says to Satan in Gen. 3:15 talking about a future savior, "And your offspring will be enemies. He will crush your head, and you will strike His heel." That one verse sets the tone for the rest of the bible. Offspring is singular. We see that this offspring from the woman will be Jesus, who will finally bring the end, eternal death to Satan. This was all part of God's plan and even saw many that will be His true followers. The key is Jesus, the only one that already has defeated Satan when he rose from the grave. The truth is in Jesus. When we put our hope in Him, we are saying, we also believe He is the only way to God.
Let's conclude with John 3:16. Those that believe in Jesus, or transformed by Jesus, will be set free and have eternal life.
Do you ever have a time when you got up very early in the morning to do something important? Some times I get up before anyone else to think, to pray, to find the answers from God to the many questions I have. Jesus, God the Son, goes back to to the temple, first thing in the morning because of the people that are hungry to be taught the truth. The day before, after Jesus taught them, some of them started to believe in Him and others wanted to arrest Him. His love for these potential believers brought Him back to a hostile place even if it meant getting hurt. I'm sure when these people saw that the temple guards were affected by Jesus and no one arrested Him, all the people were talking about this. I believe many of these same people came back along with some of their friends and family hoping to see Jesus again. To their delight, Jesus did come back and a large crowd gathered around Him. This was good since Jesus can teach all of these people searching for the truth, but a crowd that large will attract a lot of attention. I'm sure someone reported this to the religious leaders. These leaders needed to do something quick to show people that they can't put their trust in Jesus. they had to come up with a plan to trap Jesus so whether He said yes or no, it will not be good for Him. It's amazing how people can come up with such evil plans. They would rather destroy a person just so they can live a lavish lifestyle. Some how in the early morning hours, they caught a woman cheating on her husband with another man. They brought her right in the middle of this crowd and brought her to Jesus. I'm not sure if she was even dressed. It's very possible she was only covered with a blanket to show everyone how shameful this woman was. People were probably looking at her with disgust and all eyes were on Jesus to see what He would do. These evil leaders made a statement that they caught her in the act of adultery as if they did a good deed. They then made a statement that no religious leader can reject. They pointed to the Law of God and said, "The Law of Moses says to stone her." Then they trap was set by asking Jesus, "what do you say?". If Jesus said to not stone her, they would point out to everyone that Jesus is violating the Law of Moses that God gave him in Leviticus 20:10. By the way, they already messed up this law because both parties committing adultery were to be stoned. If Jesus said to stone her, they would've pointed out to everyone that capital punishment of any killing was carried out strictly by the Roman government. They would have reported Jesus to the Romans who would have arrested Him for doing something unlawful. Yes or Now would both been a bad choice and these evil leaders knew it. They themselves would've just ask the Romans to execute her. For them, they didn't care because they felt justified in having her killed. Jesus on the other hand wasn't trap. It's really interesting that Jesus simply stooped down and stated writing things on the dust with his fingers. What did he write in the ground? Some scholars believe He was writing all the accusers names and next to them their sins. This should have shocked them because if this was so, Jesus would have wrote the exact embarrassing sins they were struggling with. That should have stopped them and even said to Jesus they now believe but that is not what happened. In vs. 7, it states, they kept demanding an answer. Jesus now stands up and looks at each of these accusers in their eyes and said, "All right, stone her, but let those who have never sinned throw the first stone." Jesus turned this trapped back to them. Now they were trapped. If anyone threw a stone, that person would be rebuked and even thrown out as a religious leader. They knew the only one without sin is God. They are frozen and don't know what to do next. Jesus then goes back down to continue writing on the ground. Maybe this time, Jesus is writing the words: Compassion and Forgiveness. Now this tense situation causes everyone to have their eyes on all the religious leaders. The crowd is curious if these leaders go against God and claim they are sinless or if they will show compassion. The crowd gets their answer by seeing all these leaders go away. The crowd is in utter amazement, but that didn't matter to Jesus. Now His attention was to help this woman. Jesus stands back up and looks at the woman. he looks into her eyes and asked if anyone condemned her. She simply said "No, Lord." Jesus then tells her the most loving thing she probably ever heard, "Neither do I." She can't believe what she is hearing. She has just received the gift of compassion and forgiveness. Jesus continues and tells her, "Go and sin no more." She is given another chance at life. I'm sure she doesn't want to mess it up. it is important that we know God doesn't approve of a sinful life. He wants up to leave the life of sin. When we confess our sins and repent, that means a change of heart. A changed heart to go and live the rest of our lives fully for God. Go and let's all live as a child of God.
Have you ever been sold a product or service because the salesperson did a great job selling it? I love to see a great salesperson working his magic. It's like an art. That is one of the reasons I stayed in sales for so long and became good enough to be the top performer of many companies I worked for. The art of the sales is interesting. One of the secrets to sales that I learned was people buy from people that they like and trust. If you think about any purchase, especially the big purchase, like a house or a car, you will go back to the salesperson. Many times, you will see that you can buy that exact product from someone else. A house is a good example. Any local realtor can sell you the house that you want, but then your mind thinks about how that sale will benefit the salesperson. If you don't like that salesperson, it will not make any difference for you. Then you are only negotiating on how little commission that person gets. If you know more about the realtor, like their family or a goal, then you have a good feeling that you are supporting that person's family or goal with your purchase. That is one of the reasons I love going into a family own restaurant to get to know more about them and their family. If the food is good and I like the owner, then you will see my family go to the restaurant often.
One of the reasons why I received Jesus in my heart was because of the mercy and love God showed me. If you know my testimony, you will know that God should have killed me when I challenged Him, but He showed His great love for me. I love God and I also like Him as well. The more I read the bible, the more I fall in love with God. The bible is like a love letter to me and the rest of the world. I still can't get over that God sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for me. A pastor at a retreat talked about the love of Jesus by saying Jesus showed His love for us by opening his arms on the cross to die for all of us. I hope you can see and feel the great love of God. If you haven't, isn't it time you do?
The main religious leaders, the priest and the Pharisees, are trying to stop people from believing in Jesus. They wanted to shut Jesus up and put him in prison. They get an unusual answer from the temple guards when they came back without Jesus. It's funny. I can picture the guards walking back slowly and speechless. They might even have a smile. They are wakening back up when these leaders shout at these men, "Why didn't you bring him in?" They are scratching their heads and then said, "we have never heard anyone speak like this?" I wonder what Jesus said. It wasn't the "do this" or "do that" message they keep hearing from these leaders. Maybe Jesus looked at them with love and spoke to them with such respect that they were stunned. It's possible that they have been mistreated like a slave and were constantly ordered to do things. Jesus on the other hand shows them a different way. These guards reciprocate that love and respect to Jesus by not arresting Him. You can almost see a struggle with these guards. They really want to know more about Jesus, but then if they don't come back, they might be executed. They go back knowing they will be mistreated, but for them, it was worth it. For them, at least this time, they wanted to leave Jesus alone. I don't think they felt that Jesus was doing anything wrong. In fact, they were thinking, Jesus is doing a lot of things good. I believe that some of these guards later became Christians.
Why is it that these religious leaders refused to accept the love and respect that Jesus gave? I believe it has to do with the love of things in this world. It's like an addiction if you think about it. Being a religious leader was a great honor and brought great honor to the family. It was also an occupation that made someone able to live a very comfortable life. You have power, money, friends in high places, and even the favor of God - so they thought. I remember my youth pastor telling us about tithing. I wasn't making much money at the time, so it was very easy to give 10%. As time passed, with a wife and kids, and lots of expenses, that 10% became hard to give. I must confess, there were times that I couldn't give that 10% because I had to pay the bills with that. I remember a pastor saying, all of us should set aside our tithe as the very first things when we get paid. I must tell you, that was one of the best advices on tithing. The bible says we should give our first fruits to God - "Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops" Proverbs 3:9. When we give to God first, we are brought to the realization that it was God that gave us the job and the strength to do our job. I wonder what these leaders were thinking when they gave to God. I'm sure they gave tithe, but most likely to keep the law. The bible also says in 2 Corinthians 9:7 that God loves a cheerful giver. Are you happy when you give to God? I don't think its human nature for us to give. When you see little tiny kids play, you will hear a lot of the kids say "Mine!" They are more likely to take than to give. Then when the toys are taken away, cries start to erupt all throughout the classroom. Giving is not a normal behavior, but there is such a great joy in giving. I love Christmas more now than before, because my wife and I can give. We have changed the format for our Christmas celebration now and have added a birthday cake for Jesus. It's important to know that all these things we have is only because of God's son, Jesus. Let's not be those little crying kids, but let's be cheerful givers that freely gives to God and His work.
The religious leaders mock the guards and said, "Have you been led astray, too?" Did you noticed how much those words stung? These leaders made the guards feel dumb. We don't like to feel dumb. We get angry when people put us down. We especially get angry when someone talks about our mom. I don't know why that is, but maybe because when we start to play the game of cutting people down, we are told that when someone talks about our mom, then they are crossing the line of no return. I'm not sure who said this, but it makes a lot of sense - "hurt people hurt others". We must realize that those who are hurt inside will express it outwardly and they will hurt others. It's like a virus. When a person hurts someone, that hurt festers inside, and it must be released. That hurt then comes out of us to hurt not just one person but many. Sometimes the hurt is so deep that it doesn't go away, even with counseling, alcohol, drugs, or friends. The bible says in Luke 6:45, "A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of." By the way, if you have a hurt that is not healed, God's love is the answer. One of the things I see in these religious leaders is the heart to follow God's law no matter what people think and feel. That's a dangerous way to follow God. Our heavenly father is a God of Love. God told the prophet Samuel when choosing a king found in 1 Samuel 16:7 that He doesn't look at the outer appearance like most people do but He looks at the heart. Let me tell you something. God thinks that you are very capable, very intelligent, very lovely, and He has a great plan for you. Our wonderful bible says in Jeremiah 29:11 that God has a plan for you, and it is not to harm you, but to prosper you, to give you hope and a great future. Did you know that there is no one else like you? Even every snowflake is different. Everything and everyone are unique and that's by God wonderful design. You are You and You should be very happy about that. The plan that God has for you, no one else can do it. You are very special. Can I hear an Amen?
Now, let's go back to our Sunday school days. Do you remember a guy named Nicodemus? When you read John 3, we see this interesting interaction between one of the elite religious leaders, a Pharisee, that wanted to meet Jesus but without the other leaders knowing about it. I wonder why Nicodemus came to Jesus. Maybe he also heard Jesus and was impressed liked the temple guards. Whatever the reason, he wanted to know more about Jesus. Jesus on the other hand already knew Nicodemus. Jesus is God the son, and as you read in John 1, Jesus was there from the beginning and He is the one that created all things. Did you know that God already knew you before you were born? The bible says in Jeremiah 1:5 that God formed you in the womb before you were born. That means Jesus already knew Nicodemus and He knew exactly why he came. He wanted to know how to gain eternal life. Jesus gives the answer in John 3. If you don't know the answer, go check it out. Now fast forward to John 7:50-51. Nicodemus is a respected leader and when he talks, everyone listens. He says, "Is it legal to convict a man before he is given a hearing?" That is a fair question and it makes perfect sense to people thinking straight. These people were not thinking fair but already had their minds made up. They did not like Jesus. They hated Jesus and wanted him gone. Look at their crazy response in vs. 52, "Are you from Galilee, too? Search the Scriptures and see for yourself—no prophet ever comes from Galilee!" I wonder who was brave enough to talk down to a well-respected leader like Nicodemus. It's very possible that Nicodemus has been teaching for many years and some of these people are his students. It's interesting how brave someone gets when they know that they have the majority behind them. The majority is not always right. Going against the majority takes lots of guts and people will turn against you. Why did Nicodemus say this even when he knew that he might be the only one with this view? Could it be that Jesus had such a great impact on him that maybe he has already changed? I believe this well-respected man was changed by Jesus. I think it may have been a slower process but then he eventually concluded that Jesus is the Messiah, the savior of the world. I'm reminded of the story of Lee Strobel. He is a very smart man. Graduated from Yale with a master's degree law. That's after he received a journalism degree from the University of Michigan. He became a renowned journalist for the Chicago Tribune and later an assistant managing editor for the Daily Herald from 1973 to 1987. He didn't believe in God because he felt there wasn't enough evidence. He was an atheist and he was determined to use his journalist education and resources to prove what he believed was correct. He decided the best way to crush the Christian faith is to destroy the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He was determined to find all the facts so his wife, that became a Christian, would stop believing. After extensive research, speaking to many experts, and travelling thousands of miles, he changed from an atheist to a believer. The proof was overwhelming, and he became a Christian at the age of 29. That journey led him to write his first book that shows all his research, "The Case for Christ". He went on to write many more books. The religious leaders failed to see all the evidence that was mounting up right in front of them, but not so for a few people like Nicodemus. Nicodemus will appear again, but at that time, it will be him showing the ultimate respect for Jesus by taking him down from the cross with his friend Joseph and putting him in a tomb.
What Nicodemus said in the end was like a mic drop that finally ended the meeting. In vs. 53, the bible says, "Then the meeting broke up and everyone went home". It's very possible that this message is like a mic drop for many of us, but instead of just going back to our normal day to day life, let's stay put. Let's rethink everything in our lives. Let’s begin a change that will impact the rest of our lives.
Maybe you realize that all of this is not by chance. Maybe you're thinking, there must be more to this life. The answer is a very BIG "Yes!". If you are not at that point yet and you still need to investigate, that is a great place to start. Why don't you read "The Case for Christ"? Check out the evidence for yourself. If you realize that God is real than start, there and ask God to show you the next steps. God is closer than you think.
If you need help, you can ask someone that you know is a true believer or you can contact me. That's why we have this ministry. We are praying for you and hope to hear from you soon. By the way, my wife and I will be travelling throughout the United States and currently have 9 states that we will visit (AZ, CA, NM, TX, MD, VA, ID, WA, NJ). We want to see all of you, so make sure to contact us and we will put you on the calendar to visit you. We are hoping to go on this circuit ride as early as June, but we will go when God tells us. We are looking forward to seeing all of you soon.
Have you ever noticed that the more time you spend at a store the more you buy. There is actually a science in retail that proves this. They have designed the stores to makes the shoppers stay longer. You will see the essential items like milk, meat, cheese, etc all the way in the back. I have noticed that the more people spend time with Jesus the more they love Him. There is a sweet fellowship the more you're around Jesus and it causes us to believe in Him more. The crowd, who are the regular people, are coming to a conclusion that Jesus is in fact the Messiah and they are starting to believe. That is a scary thought for these leaders whose leadership with the people are already shaky. I wonder what would have happened if these leaders allowed Jesus into their lives. Some of them could have become famous Christian leaders that changed this world. I'm sure some of these men were gifted, but what a sad sight when the gifts they received from God is wasted. These Pharisees are more afraid of what they will lose instead of what they will gain from God. They react by sending guards to arrest Jesus. I find this funny. How can anyone take down Jesus, God the Son? That's like a whole army of tiny ants trying to take down an ocean. All these angry ants will die trying. It's a silly sight, but somehow these leaders think they can do it. If they only truly believed that this is God the Son then they would run away in fear. Jesus is very gracious and kind and allows this event to take place, but they will not be able to do anything to Him because it's not the time yet. When we follow God, it's important to follow His timing and not ours. It's pointless to try to do it on our own timing when it's not God's time. Instead, we are to keep following God faithfully in what He has put us in until He calls us to the next project. The important thing is to have faith that God will call us and to be ready to move when and where He calls us. Jesus gives a lessons on what will happen to Him later, but it's confusing to these leaders. It would make perfect sense if they viewed Jesus as someone who came from heaven to this world for us. It's all over the old testament and lots of prophecies but they just can't seem to believe it when it's happening right in front of them. They are living in history but they can't seem to understand that they are part of it. Jesus is simply stating that He will go back to where He came from. Instead, these leaders keep looking at Jesus as someone that belongs in this world and will stay in this world. How do we view Jesus? Isn't He the Word that created this entire universe including this little world? Isn't He our creator so He is essentially our true maker? Just as a famous priceless painting would point people back to the artist by it's signature. Didn't He come from heaven to come to this world because of His love for us? If that is all true, then are we truly living our lives as we believe these truth? These leaders are very smart and have read the bible many times, but isn't it interesting that they are completely missing this simple message of what Jesus said?
Jesus then brings another lessons that will stump these leaders that pride themselves in knowing everything about God's words. In verse 37, the last day of the festival, Jesus tells everyone that whoever is thirsty then they can come and drink from Jesus and He will give them Rivers of Living Water that will start flowing from their hearts. What a great image of fresh mountain spring water. This is heavenly water, better than anything we have ever tasted, that will completely refresh you. What is this Living Water? These leaders can't figure it out. Jesus is saying the Living Water is the Holy Spirit who is the most pure and refreshing. Did you ever think that the Holy Spirit that is in you is so refreshing, but it is true. He is our true Living Water and now you can imagine him flowing out of your hearts and giving life throughout your entire mind, body, and soul. Isn't that an awesome picture? The Holy Spirit was kept in heaven until Jesus fulfilled His mission in this world for us. When Jesus died on the cross, He gave us the gift of completely paying for all of our sins but also gave us the Holy Spirit. When did the Holy Spirit come here? That's a good question. When you read Acts 1:1-8, we read that after the crucifixion, Jesus resurrected and appeared to the apostles for 40 days. During that time, I'm sure He told them all that will happen to them. The future events for these followers of Jesus will be one of the darkness times in history for all Christians, but then He comforted them by telling them in (Acts 1:8) that God will send them the Holy Spirit (Living Water) who will give these faithful followers power to tell everyone everywhere about the good news. The power of the Holy Spirit was so power and evident. Check out Acts 2. The Holy Spirit: He came powerfully like a storm and filled the entire room where the believers where at (vs. 2), He was a like a tongues of fire that settled on each of them (vs.3), He filled them with Himself (vs.4), He help them to begin talking in other languages so others can understand, even though they didn't know the language (vs.4 - God knows all the languages and all the dialects in the entire world), He made them bold (vs. 14), He inspired them and filled them with God's word and were able to speak it with authority (vs.17-36), He convicted those who heard the message to repent (vs.37-40), and He helped the first church for Jesus to grow to over 3,000 new members all in one day. This same Holy Spirit is with all the true believers. Are you ready to drink from the Living Water and get refreshed and renewed? Let's jump in that cool refreshing water and live fully for God.
It seems like to me, many people say they know about Jesus but the reality is very few really know Him. Some people see Jesus as the long hair hippie kind of person who is always smiling and giving hugs to everyone. They see Jesus only as a person who is talking about love, peace, and joy. They don't fear Him and thinks Jesus has forgiven everyone and all the people, good or bad, will go to heaven. Then you have some other people who sees Jesus like a judge and enforcer. They see Jesus angry all the time, yelling a them for all the wrong things they do. They hate Jesus and wants nothing to do with Him. Some people have other opinions about Jesus but many are just making things up about Him that are completely wrong. Why is this? People make Jesus what they want Him to be so they can justify how they are living. Believe it or not, some of these people even have said they accepted Jesus in their lives, but their lives didn't change. They seem to always have an excuse to do something even though it is wrong. In today's study, we read that Jesus has just taught and many people, including the Jewish leaders, are impressed with His knowledge. It wasn't enough to change them because they were so focused on criticizing everything He said that they didn't allow those powerful words to enter their hearts. They received the message of Jesus more like if they were at a concert. They just sat back enjoying the excellence of a great orator, but after it is over, they go right back to their regular lives. I wonder how many people around the world do the same, as they go to church every Sunday. They may enjoy the music, be amazed at the message, they may even laugh or cry, but when the service is over, they just go back to their regular lives. Some people complain the church service is too long, but if they are only giving one or two hours to God per week, that is way too short. When I became saved by asking Jesus to be my LORD and Savior around the age of 16, I thought I was living for God. It wasn't until I was 21 that I really completely dedicated 100% to living for God. I was encourage to really think about this in a revival. The speaker asked us if we are living 100% to God. After really wrestling with that question for a few days, I began to see too many areas of my life where I was compromising. I realized that I was not living a completely devoted life for God, even though I was very involved in the church. At that time, I was the director of Sunday School, preaching for the little kids, then in the afternoon, I would preach to the young adults (youth, college, adults). On Saturdays, I would lead the youth group and during the week, I would spend time counseling those that needed help. I was very busy serving God, but I saw too many things I was doing and thinking that compromised my walk with God. When I confessed these sins and fully committed everything to God, it was like this huge burden taken off my back. Jesus tells the Jewish leaders why it's important to follow God instead of following strict customs on the Sabbath day. Jesus brilliantly points out that they also do certain activities on the Sabbath day, but they don't feel guilty about it. They feel justified, but Jesus said they need to truly understand the heart of God. If they do, they will gladly accept all the miracles Jesus is doing on the Sabbath. The Jewish leaders refused to acknowledge what Jesus is saying, even though they knew He is correct. So instead of their hearts being open and living a better life for God, they instead wanted to kill Him. We may not go extremes like the Jewish leaders, but how we react to Jesus might be very similar. We read God's words and it's suppose to change us and keep improving us, but instead, we kill those words and only accept God's words that we like. What do you think will happen to you if you accepted everything God says? Don't you see a much more healthy and whole person? If you allow it, God's word will constantly change you to be a better person. The people are amazed at the interaction between Jesus and the Jewish leaders. They see that the powerful leaders can not stop Jesus. The people even say "Can it be that our leaders know that He really is the Messiah?" Seems like some of these people are close but then you have the naysayers. These people, I think it was only a few of them, points out that they know about Jesus and where He comes from. They even tell everyone that the true Messiah will just simply appear and no one will know where He comes from. Doesn't it sound like they are making it look like the Messiah will be like a super hero? They are taking a little bit of what they heard from God's words, they then exaggerate it to be this super hero that they made up in their imagination. Since Jesus, the real Messiah, is nothing like the Messiah they imagined, they refuse to accept Jesus. Then you have those in vs. 31, that does believe in Jesus because they have never seen someone doing so many miracles. Yet, even though they believe, they don't follow Jesus. What good is it for someone to be a believer yet do not change. That person is not a Christian. He is close, but the next step is to realize a need for a Savior . You have to realize that everyone was going to perish and was destine to go to hell, unless there was a Savior. Are you afraid of not going to heaven? Jesus is that Savior. We need to acknowledge that we desperately need Jesus and confess our sins. Then we need to understand He knows the way to go better than our ways by asking Him to be our LORD and Savior. Finally, ask Him to help you give a 100% of your life to Him. No more compromising. Then this huge burden will be lifted from you to freely live for God.
It's important to ask the right question at the right time to the right person. Ray Zinn, the longest serving CEO in Silicon Valley wrote an article on this. He says do thing this correctly leads to great success. He also points out the wrong question is almost guaranteed to generate the wrong answer. The Jewish leaders were doing the correct thing of listening to Jesus and not interrupting Him. It wasn't for respect but they feared the people. Even though their intentions of listening was wrong, they took the time to really listen to the teaching of Jesus. They were amazed. These Jewish leaders started learning about God's word as a young child. They would study night and day to try to understand God's words. they would memorize it and mediate on these precious words of God throughout the day. They would memorize whole books like Genesis or Psalms and recite them through memory perfectly to others or in synagogues. Unfortunately, they only had a portion of the bible. At the time they had only the Old Testament. They were missing the New Testament and the only person teaching that was Jesus. The only ones that were learning from Jesus were His disciples. But even among the thousands that followed Jesus only a few stayed with Him. These were few and faithful followers that at with Him, talked with Him slept next to Him, and did ministry with Jesus. they saw the New Testament teaching coming to life every day. That must have been an amazing experience. Think about what it would cost now to spend just 10 minutes with Jesus. I could easily see people paying a Billion dollars just so they can spend time with Jesus. I'm sure it would be a life transforming experience. Jesus, instead of charging people and getting rich, is very gracious and kind with His time for those that truly seeks the truth. These Jewish leaders were not true truth seekers. They thought they had all they needed yet still they were amazed at what Jesus was teaching. They recognized Jesus knew the Old Testament very well and knew how to apply it. they listened and they asked the right questions at the right time but to the wrong person. They asked these questions to themselves. They could have easily asked Jesus but instead because they didn't want to look inferior and they feared the people's opinions. They just kept the questions to themselves. They had one simple question , "who taught Jesus?" Jesus is God in the flesh and knows our thoughts, so He answers this question. In verse 16 to 19, Jesus answers by telling them these teachings are not His ideas or in another words, He didn't teach Himself, but that God taught Him. He goes further and states those who do the will of God will know that these teachings are truly from God. These Jewish leaders by this time began to cover their ears and their minds. They can not accept God teaching some directly, especially someone like Jesus. They just could not accept this new teaching that came from Jesus. The New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. In fact, in order to teach the New Testament effectively, you have to know the Old Testament. Why? Because the New Testament is constantly referencing the Old Testament. In order to understand something like marriage in the New Testament and truly appreciate everything about the beauty, harmony, and purpose of marriage, one has to go back to the Old Testament. Jesus was teaching the whole bible, whereas these Jewish leaders were only teaching a part. You could say, they were close but when hearing of Jesus and the fulfillment of the Old Testament, they became closed minded. Instead of them looking for the Messiah, they were only looking for praise for their own ideas. Even though the true Messiah, the Savior of the world, was in front of them. They were completely blind. They were looking for people and God to tell them how great they were and how much knowledge they have about God. The people were impressed, kind of, but God was not impressed. Remember these people that were taught by these Jewish leaders lived in fear and were only allowed to talk freely, only what these leaders allowed. Isn't it funny? The people lived in fear of these Jewish leaders but the Jewish leaders lived in fear of the people. What happened to the fear of God? If they would have lived with the fear of God, I believe, they all would have lived differently. The Jewish leaders and the people might have worshiped Jesus, but instead they are quick to try to kill Him. I say these Jewish leaders were close because I see how powerfully God worked through a Pharisee, named Saul, who later became the Apostle Paul. He was one of the Jewish leaders - you could say Saul was one of the very top elite leaders. All these leaders knew Saul and recognized him as a great leader until he completed converted to become Paul, the Christian. He understood the New Testament better than most people because he was an expert in the Old Testament. He understood how it all worked. He was no longer seeing half the picture. Now he saw the whole picture. He saw clearly that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. Jesus filled all the gaps in the Old Testament. In fact, Paul realized the entire bible is really all abut Jesus all the time, because Jesus is spoken about throughout. You can say history is His Story. Jesus is the Word. Hopefully you understand now how important Jesus is.
When you meet up with friends or family, what do you talk about? There's a lot of safe topics to talk about, but it's mostly surface conversation. These things can be talked about with complete strangers and it wouldn't make a difference. People say to avoid talking about politics and religion, because these are sensitive topics. What they really mean is these go pass the surface and goes to the inside of a person. Politics and religion can be a scary conversation, but if you can't talk about the things that matters to you the most with those that are suppose to be close, don't you think that's sad? It is true that talking about the deep things in our souls can cause arguments and even fights, but he other reality is, you finally are able to talk about what's important to you with like minded people. One of the most controversial topic is "Jesus". It seems like people either love Him or hate Him. Why do you think He causes such a reaction? One of the reason is Jesus speaks the truth. Jesus is God and He speaks straight to your should. He doesn't speak like a most politicians, who answers a questions but never really answers it. Many politicians, from my observation, will not answer a question directly because he doesn't want to make a promise. Then he turns that question and make all kinds of promises that are the popular opinion of the day. Sadly most politicians, one again my opinion, that gets elected don't keep these promises. They instead implement all kinds of policies that they wanted and deceived the people that voted for them. Jesus doesn't do this. He keeps His promises. Many have already been fulfilled and there are any more that are yet to come. God is not someone we can control. He is all powerful and all knowing. We read a few verses before, that Jesus told His brothers that it was not the tie for Him to go to the festival of Shelters. That statement is true. At that time when talking with His brothers, it was not the time, but when the brothers left, we read in vs. 10, Jesus did go. Jesus was following the leading of the Holy Spirit. We have busy lives but we need to always be flexible to the leading of the Holy Spirit. we have to acknowledge God's plan is greater than ours. Following the Holy Spirit may not make sense at the time, but later on you see how everything fits together. I read a couple news articles that said many people didn't go to work during the September 11th attack on the Twin Towers. Some of them were Christians and they were led by the Holy Spirit to either call out sick or was delayed in getting to work, but that saved their lives. They realized God had a special purpose for them to stay alive. That event and how God changed them completely changed their lives. Jesus went to this festival but kept hidden. Many people, including the Jewish leaders, were talking about Jesus. Some were positive but mostly it was negative. People were so afraid to talk about Jesus in a good way, even though Jesus did so much for them, because of the Jewish leaders. They didn't have the freedom to talk about what truly mattered to them. They could only talk freely what these Jewish leaders allowed. That is not freedom of speech. The leaders were suppose to help the people, especially when it came to their relationship with God. Instead, these people were bound by their fear of the leaders. We need to not be afraid of man or those in high positions. God has put these people in charge and he can easily change them. We need to trust God and know we have complete freedom in Him. We should not be ashamed of Jesus. He is not ashamed of us and have an Agape (unconditional) love for us. Recently, I have decided that I will put Christian music on all the time as I am driving Uber. I realize that instead of accommodating people and giving them music they want to listen to, it was important that I put on the Christ centered music for me. It's to remind me as I'm driving for many hours about my Lord and Savior Jesus. There are many songs that mentions the name of Jesus and yes, it may make some of the passengers uncomfortable, but it also help them to behave better in my car. I see that as I honor God, He also blesses me. Let's be comfortable talking about Jesus, singing about Him, worshiping Him, and living for Him. As we do that, you will see great blessings going your way.
I have to tell you, I am very impressed with the answer Martha gave to Jesus. She understood Jesus probably more that most if not all the disciples. It seems like many time these 12 disciples were struggling in their belief in Jesus. They seemed to be always amazed about what Jesus could do, but for some reason, Martha and Mary knew exactly who Jesus was. Martha understood where Jesus came from and who sent Him. Look at vs. 27, "You are the Messiah, the Son of God, the One who has come into the world from God." She knew the identity of Jesus. He is the Messiah. So in another words, all those verses in the Old Testament talking about a future event where God will send a savior to destroy the devil's work Jesus is a king from the kingdom of Heaven. The Son of God who is the creator of all things and He is the King of all Kings. Jesus is that King who came to this world born a human baby from a virgin. All that and much more were predicted by people inspired by God to see visions of future events. Many people couldn't see the clear signs by God of making all of these predictions happen one by one. Prediction is more, in my opinion, a guess so a better word is prophecy. Prophecy is visions coming directly from God. God doesn't make any mistakes, so these prophecies all comes true. Every one of the came true and some are still to come in the future. They all will come true. Why? God is beyond time. He has already been to the future and knows every little detail. This is why it is profound to hear the incredible faith in Martha. She believed who Jesus is and who sent Him. She even surrendered her life to Jesus by addressing Him as LORD or Adonai. She didn't mind not being one of the disciples. She just wanted to serve Jesus in any way possible. She became a cook, the dish washer, the person who did everyone's laundry, took out the trash; she basically became a servant to everyone. When Jesus said if you desire to be the greatest, be a servant to all, I wonder if he was looking towards Martha and Mary when he said that. You might think what a waste of talent and wisdom when Martha knew so much. I don't think Martha thought that way and neither did Jesus. Often time when we go to church or some kind of church event such as a retreat, we see the speaker, the worship band, the small group leaders; basically those in leadership. But how about all those that keeps the event moving? Often times we forget about the sound person, the video person, cooks and helpers, drivers, set up and tear down team, clean up crew; so basically all those in the back ground. Who are the most important people for these events? Before you answer that, what does Jesus think? We are so ingrain to be #1, the top person, but the reality is, it takes a team of many parts to work. To God, everyone is important. When we go to Heaven, we will see clearly who God values and why I believe we might be very surprised.
We read that Jesus arrives with his disciples to this place because Martha and Mary's brother and a close friend of Jesus, Lazarus passed away. If you read this account, you will find that the news of Lazarus being sick came to Jesus much earlier so he could have come down before Lazarus died. Instead, Jesus purposefully waits until Lazarus is fully dead. It's important to understand why because it gives us insight into why God waits to give us an answer. The reason why is because of who Jesus is and what he can do. When you go back to John 1, we read that the WORD was with God in the beginning. The WORD created everything and Life itself is in Him. The WORD gives Life to those who become a Christian and also gives Light. That Light shines through the darkness and it's so strong that darkness can not stop it. This WORD is Jesus Christ. Jesus is the creator and giver of Life. He cam late on purpose so there would be no doubt in everyone's mind that Lazarus is dead. Jesus tell Martha "I am the resurrection and the Life". Resurrection has two meaning. One means to bring back from the dead and the other is rebirth. For the case for Lazarus, Jesus brought Lazarus back from the dead. Lazarus didn't have a rebirth of the body because his physical bodies eventually dies. Now salvation is rebirth. so in another words, we become a new and different person. In 2 Corinthians 2:17, it states "therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come, the old has gone, the new is here." IN 2 Corinthians 3;18, it says we are being transformed into His image with ever increasing glory. That means after we are saved, Jesus transforms us to be more like Him since He is in us. The new person is reborn or resurrected. It's not a dead person coming back but we become a new creation and therefor the old person has to go. In another words, Jesus made us a brand new person like Him and this old dead person we use to be packs up and leaves. That old self knows that Jesus gave us life and that life in Jesus gave us light so bright that the old dead self who loves the darkness can't stand the bright light inside us. That is the resurrection that Jesus gives us.
Jesus goes on and tells Martha, those that believe in Him even though they die physically will live again. Jesus is talking about one day our physical bodies will be changed to have a new glorious bodies that will never perish. We will live forever as a born again Christian and one day Jesus will change our physical bodies. It will be new and different than what we have now. When we read of the resurrected Jesus, we see that he had a different physical body able to much more than before. We have bodies with limitation and can easily get hurt. The new resurrected bodies will have no limits. Does't it sound exciting? Let me end by going back to our resurrected souls. This new life God has given us by Jesus also has no limits. Jesus has given us His life and His powerful light. It has chased our old self away and our light can help guide others to our savior Jesus Chris. Let's remember all that Jesus has done this Easter but let's go further and get excited about what this Easter message, the Good News, can do to make a change in someone's life. Jesus came her to this world to destroy the Devil's work. Let's continue to keep destroying the Devil's work and bring the light of Jesus one person at a time.
Salvation is an interesting word. The definition is preservation or deliverance from harm, ruin or loss. In order for salvation to occur, everyone was destined to be harm, ruin or loss. When you go to verses 1-3, we see what is really happening. It’s as if God opens the curtain to the spiritual realm and shows us what Satan has been up to. We see a dark world where many people in the world, including us, are dead yet still moving. We are aimlessly living a joyless life and kept in control by Satan and his army. It is his wicked world. He feeds us trash in the form of every sinful desire and activities we can think of. Instead of making us happy, we are digging ourselves deeper in the pit of despair. Deep inside, we know we will live in this hopeless maze Satan has made that has no way out. Strangely, we even see babies, millions of them, being born in this wicked world. It gets worse when we all realize that we are under God’s anger and judgement. There seems to be no happy ending here. Then in vs. 4-7, we see something like the sun rising. Satan and all of his government officials are freaking out. They thought for sure God’s anger would last but to their horror, God shows mercy. God’s love is so bright and warm that it is penetrating every part of this dark world. Satan and his army are trying frantically to hide as many of the zombies like people into a darker room before this light of God can reach them. They are not able to reach many of the people and for fear that they will be harmed, they leave these slaves behind. Then something amazing happens. God brings a deliverance for these people. Infact, His salvation is so strong, it changes these dead slaves to people with life. They are filled with so much of God’s life that they shine. They are forgiven from all their sins and given a new identity as children of God. These people are free, but the big question is who freed them and was there a cost for that freedom? We turn to God and realize that God who cannot be hurt has signs of blood. We ask - how did God get hurt? Was there someone greater than God that can defeat Him? We are then told of exactly how we were saved. We see that Jesus was sent by God into this wicked world. We find that not only did God have mercy for us, but He loves us. He has always loved us. All the propaganda from Satan was all lies about God. Jesus, God the Son, came to Satan’s world and took on a body able to be hurt, all because of us. Jesus then challenges Satan to a match which Satan thinks he can easily win. Why? Because now Jesus has to play by Satan’s rules. You can find one of these battles when Jesus is extremely exhausted and weak from fasting 40 days and nights. In that battle, Satan thought he had the upper hand but somehow lost. Jesus overcame all of Satan’s attacks. Satan realized he has to turn the very people God created against His Son. Little does Satan know, but that too was all part of God’s plan. Satan fills the minds of the leaders for the people to cause great harm to Jesus and kill him. They succeed in doing just that but they are not certain they will see the last of Jesus. They heard Jesus talk about being killed but also heard Him saying, He will rise again. Satan, all of his dark army, and all the people serving Satan waits in expectation if Jesus will come back from the grave. They try all different ways to secure the place where the dead body of Jesus lays. They think of all different strategies just in case Jesus does come back. Satan, especially, knows nothing is impossible for God. To his shock, Jesus keeps His promise and overcomes death, Satan’s greatest general, and comes back stronger than ever. The only thing Satan and his team can do now is run away and go to plan B of spreading a different story. The people realize that this salvation was all done by God and it wasn’t anything they did to deserve it. You, one of the saved, are overwhelmed with the story of salvation that tears overflow in your eyes. They are of joy but also sadness. You see now the blood of God was not because someone greater than Him can defeat Him, but He allowed Himself to be hurt for you. God’s love is an unconditional love. It is truly Agape Love. Truly this is a gift from God. Your tears turn to a determination to share this amazing salvation story to all those that are still a slave to Satan. Even though you may get hurt, you now see the importance of everyone knowing salvation is also for them. This story continues as we begin to see according to vs. 10, we are God’s masterpiece. We even realize that God had a plan for us to do good long before we were born. God is amazing! Let’s live the life God had planned for us since we are truly His masterpieces.
Jesus says in vs. 30, "I and my Father are one". Jesus says He is the shepherd and His sheep hears His voice and follows Him vs.27. He is the chief shepherd for all of God's people. Only He can give eternal life vs.28 and He is so powerful that no one can or will be able to take anyone belonging to Jesus away from Him. In another words, the gift of salvation of eternal life with God in heaven, is fully guaranteed. Jesus then says God is the one who gave the true believers to Him vs.29. He goes on to say something similar as vs.28, and He says no one can take the true believers out of God the Father's hand because He is the greatest. We just read these verses clearly stating Jesus is similar to God the Father. He closes those verses by saying "I and my Father are one. vs.30. He is essentially saying not only is He similar to God but He is equal to God. For us, this is not some troubling verses because we know Jesus is God the son. He is God incarnate. He is Immanuel meaning God with us. These religious teachers of the law had a major problem with this. Once Jesus is saying He is equal to God they wanted to kill him right there. Now, if Jesus was just a man, these leaders had every right to be angry, but why did they believe Jesus as just man instead of the chosen one, the Messiah, that God foretold many times in the bible? Why didn't they double check to see if Jesus met all that God said about the Messiah? Maybe it's because they just couldn't accept how God would bring His son from a poor family, a very common family with no educational background they approved. Jesus didn't fit the leader, the savior, they wanted. Now John the Baptist, was someone they could support. His family was well known, wealthy, his father was a priest, and they saw many people going to John. If they would have simply investigated, they would have known John is not the Messiah. Many people, even to this day, don't accept Jesus as God's Messiah for us. They would rather have someone like an invincible super hero type with no weakness instead of a savior that is vulnerable for us and allowed enemies to kill him, even though God clearly told us that will happen. People totally missed that fact that through the sacrifice of Jesus, we are cleansed completely of our sin or in another words, the penalty for our sins was completely paid in full by Jesus dying on the cross. That was not a man but God who died for us. When the resurrected Jesus showed himself to a doubting disciple named Thomas, he said of Jesus in John 20:28, "My Lord and my God". Many people knew that the Messiah would appear. They were looking, especially when people heard the wise men from the East presented themselves to King Herod looking for the real king sent by God in Matt. 2:1-2. They asked, "Where is He that is born king of the Jews?"
Jordan Adlard Rogers grew up poor, but later was found to be the son of a lord of Penrose Manor in the UK. After getting a DNA test, they found that he is the only living heir to Charles Rogers. It's like a Korean drama. Charles wasn't suppose to inherit the family fortune, but it was suppose to go to his older brother Nigel. Charles was in the army for a short time but it was a very violent time of war and death. When he came back, he had major PTSD, and he decided to live like a hippie. That's when he met Julie. It was a life of drugs and sleeping around. Charles found out later on Nigel died of Leukemia, that he became the heir of the entire estate, and Julie was 5 months pregnant. Charles left Julie and didn't want anything to do with a baby. He wanted to move on and live a responsible life. Jordan was born to a mom that was very irresponsible and still caught up in drug. She had many boyfriends, married a couple more time, and many times didn't have a home to live in. Jordan still loved his mom and would go out of his way to protect her. One day at the age of 10, his mom told him who his real father was. It was hard for him to believe but he could tell his mom was telling the truth. Charles and all of his family didn't want anything to do with Jordan. They didn't want to believe Charles had an illegitimate son. A simple DNA test would have proven it, but they refuse to take it. That all changed in August 2018. It was an answer to prayer. Jordan, at that time, found out 3 days earlier, his girlfriend, Katie, was pregnant. He had a low paying job as a home healthcare worker and didn't know how he could take care of Katie and his baby. The Penrose Manor's estate manager called him and said Charles just passed away 3 days earlier, and told him to take the DNA test and he will match it with the DNA test on Charles. Sure enough, it was a perfect match. Jordan Adlard Roger has no problem taking care of Katie and their baby because he inherited the $65 million Penrose Manor and receives an annual salary of $130,000 because of the estate. God is Good.
Alright now, let's do a bible DNA on Jesus. We will see clearly Jesus is the only one that can be the Messiah. We will match the prophecies of the Messiah in the Old Testament to the fulfillment of them in them in the New Testament.
Here we go:
Born in Bethlehem (Mic. 5:2; Matt. 2:5-6)
Born of a virgin (Is. 7:14; Matt. 1:22-23)
Flight to Egypt (Hos. 11:1; Matt. 2:14)
Children massacre in Bethlehem (Jere. 31:15; Matt. 2:16-18)
Healed the needy (Is. 35:5-6; Matt. 11:5)
Tribe of Judah (Gen. 49:10; Luke 3:33)
Called Immanuel (Is. 7:14; Matt 1:23)
Ministry in Galilee (Is. 9:12; Matt. 4:12-16)
Rejected by His own Jewish people (Is. 53:3; John 1:11)
Enter Jerusalem on a donkey (Zach. 9:9; Matt. 21:1-11)
Betrayed by a friend (Ps. 41:9; Matt. 26:20-25)
Betrayed for 30 pieces of silver (Zach. 11:12; Matt. 26:15)
Falsely accused (Ps. 35:11; Matt. 26:59-68)
Crucified with criminal (Is. 53:12; Matt. 27:38)
Hands and Feet pierced (Ps. 22:16; John 20:25)
No broken bones (Ps. 34:20; John 19:33)
Buried in tomb of rich (Is. 53:9; Matt. 27: 57-61)
Resurrected from the dead (Ps. 16:10; Matt. 28:9)
Taken to heaven (Ps. 68:18; Luke 24:50-51)
Jesus is the only one that can fulfill this list. Once again, if anyone would have done some background on Jesus, they would have easily found out that Jesus is the Messiah. They would have known Jesus is who He claimed He said He is. Instead of picking up stones they should have dropped to their knees and worshipped Him. If they would have done the bible DNA on Jesus, they would have also found out that Jesus will also die for our sins and bring liberty to the captives. Can we accept the Good News of Jesus that God gave to us? Let's continue to read the Words of God and accept everything written in the bible. God wants us to have the full council of God - Acts 20:27.