Chardon church of Christ

The Light of the World
John 8:12-20

INTRODUCTION: Good morning church. One of the messages in John's gospel is that the world is in complete darkness. His gospel begins with the Word coming into the world, coming into the darkness and the darkness does not comprehend Him. The darkness does not overcome Him. This message of light and darkness is a theme throughout this gospel. In this section it becomes very significant.

It is important to keep in mind what John has painted for us. We are in darkness, the world is in darkness, and we are in need of help.

We need a means to get out of that darkness. Jesus comes and makes a powerful claim, a second great claim about Himself. As He speaks about Himself, it's going to have implications for those who believe in Him, and it's going to have significant implications for those who do not believe in Him. The text today is John 8:12-20.

I. What Jesus Claims About Himself (8:12) – “Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”” This is the second time Jesus has given a description about Himself. Last time in chapter 6 He said, “I am the bread of life.”

A. When Jesus makes these massive “I am” statements, it should cause us to stop for a moment and think about what that entails. All of chapter 6 is about how Jesus is the bread of life. All of chapter 8 and chapter 9 is about this concept of Jesus being the light of the world.
B. You will recall that our context for this section is the Feast of Tabernacles. Back in chapter 7 we saw this picture of the celebration.

1. We noted there was the processional and the water ceremony reminding the Israelites of being slaves in Egypt, the wilderness wandering, and the future outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the Messianic age.
2. One of the other interesting things that happened during the Feast of Tabernacles is that there were enormous candelabras lit in Jerusalem at the time of this feast. Writers record, Josephus in particular, that the glow from these four candelabras was so powerful it reached across the entire city.
3. In chapter 7 on that last day of the feast with this water ceremony, Jesus says “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.”
4. Now with these blazing lights commemorating the pillar of fire that guided the Israelites through the darkness during the Exodus from Egypt, Jesus says, “I am the light of the world.” That claim is far reaching with what Jesus wants us to understand about who He is.

C. First, it is the claim of deity. For Jesus to say that He is the light of the world is to expressly declare Himself to be God.

1. In the book of Isaiah Isaiah 60:19 it says, “The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; but the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.” David made a similar declaration in Psalm 27:1 “The Lord is my light and my salvation;”. In 1^st John 1:5 John declares, “…God is light…”.
2. For Jesus to now say, I am light, is to put Him on par with God. Only God is light is one of the themes we're going to see a few times. It will come back mostly in chapter 9. Only God gives light to the world. Only God can give light to the eyes. Only God gives light to the heart. Only God can speak light into existence.
3. Here you have Jesus making the statement, “I am the light of the world.” The first implication is He's God for only God is light.

D. Second is the implication that this makes Him the Messiah. In Malachi 4:2, Malachi, the final prophet of the Old Testament times is prophesying of a glorious day. “… when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze…” Then the Lord says, “But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.” Here is this picture of when the Messiah comes, when Christ comes, it's going to be like the sun rising.

1. Why? Because the world is in darkness. The sun is going to rise up for you who believe, for you that obey, for you who are faithful - with healing in its wings and you will go leaping with joy.
2. Do you recall what Simeon said? Luke 2:25-35. Verse 25 introduces Simeon as a righteous and devote man looking forward to the coming of the Messiah. In verse 26 it says, “it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.” When Jesus is brought by Joseph and Mary to the temple according to the custom of the Law, “Simeon took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,… for my eyes have seen your salvation… a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.”” I paraphrase.
3. Simeon recognized Jesus as the Christ. For Jesus to take those words upon Himself not only declares Him to be God, but it also declares Him to be the promised one, the anointed king, the Messiah, who has come to save the world and to light the path to God.

E. Third, it also makes a claim that He is the head of the true Israel. This is important and easy to pass by and not consider.

1. Isaiah records a prophecy of the Messiah in chapter 42, and Matthew shows Jesus fulfilled this prophecy in Matthew 12:15-21. Within this prophecy we read Isaiah 42:6, “I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.” God is speaking and these words are being given to the people of Israel. He says to the servant, “I give you as a covenant for the people.” It would be through this servant that people would enter a covenant relationship with God. Then God says, “a light for the nations”. This light would not be just for Israel, but the light would shine to all the nations.
2. In Isaiah 49 it is the Servant speaking and relates how He was called. In verse 3 He is named, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” If you, like myself, are confused in reading of the Messiah being called Israel, look back to when God changes Jacob’s name to Israel. Christ is the true Israel. Those who belong to Christ are part of the true Israel which is what John 15 records; Jesus as the true vine and we are the branches that bear fruit.
3. In Isaiah 49:6 He says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” When the Messiah comes – He is Israel, the Prince of God – and brings light into a dark world. If Jesus is the light, then as a follower of Him you are in the true Israel, the true people of God.

F. These are three observations from Jesus’ statement. I believe this third one is critically important to what Jesus says as He continues and makes a claim for those who will be His followers.

II. What Jesus Claims for His Followers – Going back to John 8:12 Jesus continues, “... Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” There's a great image here, and it continues with the imagery of the wilderness. We're in the backdrop of the Feast of Tabernacles which is a reminder that the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, that God brought them out and a reminder of what occurred in the wilderness.

A. In the wilderness God went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, to lead them on the way, and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light. Jesus is using this imagery as He says “whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life”. I am the one to follow. I am God. I am the Messiah. I am the head of Israel, and if you follow Me, I will take you out of that darkness and guide you down the path of light.
B. Jesus continues to show us what true followers look like, what it means to truly be a disciple of Jesus. Think about what was going on in the wilderness. Who were the people who were truly followers of God in that wilderness?

1. They were not people who just said Hey, there is a pillar of fire that's kind of neat, nor were they just the ones that decided to walk behind it and that was it. Remember, most of Israel fell in the wilderness. Following God truly meant you went where He led, you did what God said, you obeyed everything that He told you and you loved doing it.
2. We recall what their big problem was though, complaining. Oh sure, they're following but they're complaining every step of the way. It's about going where He leads, doing what He says, and loving doing it all the way there. That's the picture of what's being described here. This is what Jesus is saying.
3. You want to be a true follower of me? I am the light of the world and what that means is you will go where I go, you will believe what I teach, you will love what I say, you will do as I command and you will do it with love and joy. That's why Israel failed in the wilderness.
4. Jesus presents Himself as the light and says if you'll follow Me you won't walk in darkness. If you follow Me, I will give you light.

C. I want you to notice there's something a little unusual in verse 12. Jesus does not hold the parallel intact. It would make sense for him to say whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will walk in light. That's how that should read, right? That would complete the parallel.

1. You won't walk in darkness you will walk in light, but that's not what He says. Look at what He uses there. You “will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life". That's interesting. I would expect He would just say you'll walk in light, but He's teaching something bigger than that.
2. It's not simply if you follow Jesus you're now on the right path and you're walking in the light. There is a concept here of being in relationship with The Light. You will possess it. You will have the light of life. It is not just saying that we are followers. It is being in a close relationship with Him. It is as if we are attached to Him. It is as if we possess Him that we have the light of life. You're not just walking – you have Christ.
3. You're with Him every step of the way and not just wandering after. He's not calling for people who will just mindlessly follow. He already showed the failure of that in the wilderness. He had a lot of people just walking after the pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night. Most of those people fell and perished.
4. He's looking for people who do more than just follow but have a relationship with Him. They will love Him and belong to Him. That's what He is describing here. They will have the light of life.

D. Let’s look at what this means for us. Without the light of Jesus, it is impossible for us to see anything properly. Discipleship recognizes that if I do not have the light of Christ, I cannot see, comprehend, or understand anything properly because we are in complete darkness. If Jesus is not our light, if He is not the one who is guiding us and directing us on His path – we will go astray.

1. If Jesus is not your light, you will not see things about your life. You can't begin to understand what you should do or how you should go about it. We often don't see ourselves in the darkness that Jesus is painting. Without Jesus you and I are walking in total darkness.
2. As the sun is the source of all light, power, and energy on earth, Jesus, the sun of righteousness is the source of all spiritual light, power, and energy. Light is the only thing that can come into contact with filth and remain uncontaminated. We as Christians are the "light of the world” but ours is a reflected light.

III. What Jesus Says To Those Who Do Not Follow Him – I would have expected the rest of this chapter would be about how Jesus is the light of the world, but it's not.

A. Jesus claims to be the light of the world, to be deity, the Messiah, the head of Israel. He is saying you must follow Me like you followed the pillar of fire. I am the one who gives life... I am the one who gives light. I am the one that is leading you to the promised land. I am the one that gives you a relationship with the Father. He has laid all that out.
B. We should expect a positive reaction from those hearing Him. Afterall people with honest and pure motives naturally pursue truth, goodness, and divine guidance. Think though of sunlight, it either causes a plant to grow, or it kills the plant depending on whether or not it is rooted in the soil.
C. In verse 13, “So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.”” We don't believe you. We're not interested in following you. We don't need your light. We're doing fine here in this darkness and we're not really in the darkness because we can see just fine.

1. Such a blind, blind world we live in. We think we see life so clearly. I've got it all figured out. I don't need Jesus. I know what I need to do. I know how I need to live. I've am my own flashlight. I don't need the sun rising upon me so I can see all that I need to see.
2. That's what they're doing. We know that's what they're doing because in chapter 5 Jesus showed all the witnesses that testify that He is who He says He is. Our sermon on that was titled “Witnesses to The Deity of Jesus” if you wish to look it up. The Holy Spirit bears witness to Me. The Father bears witness to Me. John the Baptist bears witness to Me. The prophets bear witness to Me and say; My testimony is true. Yet they say, you testified about yourself, we can't believe you.

D. I wonder, do we do that with God? I know you are saying that you will give me light and it will change my life completely. I have the bread of life you say, we can fully trust you, you will give us guidance, and you will be our light. The light will change everything so we can see how we can live.

1. You know what? There are some things I don’t want to change and I'm going to do what I want to do. I don't want to do all you're asking.
2. Sometimes we don’t even fully realize we have dug in our heels on something. They know what He is saying and they don’t want to believe. That's what they say in verse 13.

E. Jesus does not respond with all the witnesses that He already gave them. John 8:14-18 – “14. Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. 15. You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. 16. Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. 17. In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. 18. I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.””

1. At the Pool of Bethesda Jesus refers to the Jewish legal requirement where a single witness is not enough to establish the truth. He goes on and points out other evidence, and testimonies to support who He is. Here Jesus responds that human legal rules do not apply the same way to Him. Because He possesses firsthand, divine awareness of His heavenly identity, His self-testimony remains uniquely true. I have the witness of the Father and since my testimony is true and the Father's testimony is true, two witnesses are enough.
2. Jesus knows they don't want to see Him as the light of the world, the light of their life. You don't want to believe me? Fine, but my testimony is true. I know who I am. I know where I've come from and I know where I'm going. Why? Because I'm the light.
3. Jesus knows His origin and His destination, but these listeners could not grasp His spiritual reality because they only saw the physical man before them. They were in spiritual darkness.

F. There is something interesting about being in darkness. If you are walking in the dark without visual references, you cannot reliably travel in a straight line. Scientific studies using GPS tracking in deserts and dense forests show that people who cannot see a reliable directional cue inevitably veer off and walk in large or tight circles—all while firmly believing they are moving straight ahead. They are lost. The MythBusters program did a show on this some time ago and it illustrated it very well.

1. Have you ever been lost? Did you make good time getting to your destination? That's what we're doing in this world. If Jesus is not your light, you might be going really fast, but you don't know where you're going. You're going at great speed. You're living life to the fullest and it's a mess because you don't have the light.
2. That's what He tells them. You are spiritually lost and wandering. I know because I've been sent from the Father. I have a purpose to give you light so that you will live your life in the right way, but you'll stay in darkness because you don't know who I am. You don't see who I am. You don't see me as light. If you don't see me as light, you'll remain in darkness and you'll never find the Father.

G. Jesus wants them to understand His testimony is true. It has come from the Father, and there is no reason for them to doubt that. In verse 19 “They said to him therefore, “Where is your Father?”” I imagine Jesus doing a face palm at that. “Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.””

1. Jesus presents them with a logical argument. Only God could be the Father of such a one as Christ. The failure of men to behold the glory and Godhead of Jesus carries with it the corollary that they are likewise unable to recognize God. The only way to know the Father is to know Jesus, and the only way to know Jesus is to follow him.
2. Jesus often used the phrase “follow me” when calling the disciples. What did Jesus tell people when they came up to him? When a disciple said he first needed to go bury his father Jesus said, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.” When the young man wanted to know how to have eternal life, “Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor,… and come, follow me.””
3. I think Jesus brings this full circle quite nicely. He tries to get them to understand when you see me as the light of the world, you will have the light of life. When you have me as the light of life, that means you're following me everywhere I go, believing what I say, obeying everything that I teach and doing it joyfully. When you do that, that's how you know me. When you know me, you know the Father.
4. When we know Jesus, we're going to change our lives for today, for tomorrow, for everything that we do. It means we will not follow our own path. Today what we read in books, hear on the radio and watch on tv, tells us you need to find your own path. You have need to blaze your own trail. You must live your own way. … That is the way of the blind.
5. That is what these religious leaders were doing, following their own thinking, believing they were on the path to God, not realizing they were wandering in circles in the dark. There is only one true path to the Father and you need Jesus as the light to find that path. How do you come to know Jesus? You come to know Jesus by following him. He called for everyone to come and follow him.

CONCLUSION: That brings to mind some questions we need to review from time to time. Does Jesus lead your life? Is He the light in your life? Are you walking on the path that He has set before you? Is your life surrounded by doing all that He says? Does your life submit to His will completely?

What does the world see in us? Does the world see us walking in darkness as they walk? Or does the world see us completely following Jesus because Jesus is the light?

That should change everything for us because we will want to leave the ways of the world. Not only because they're sinful and wrong and God condemned them, but also because we know that is the path of darkness that leads us in circles to destruction.

There is a light, there is a path, and that path is shown to us by Jesus. We want to get on that path because we recognize it is the only way to the Father. It is the only way to have salvation. It is the only way to find the Grace of God.

If the darkness of the world has started to overcome you and the path is dimming, pray to God for the strength to turn again toward a deeper relationship with Him. Don’t remain on the present level you are spiritually.

If you have not seen Jesus as the light, we invite you to turn away from your sins. Be immersed in water to have your sins washed away and begin that walk with Him. A walk that gives you eternal life. A walk that gives you hope and life that you do not have otherwise.

Whatever your need we invite you to come while we stand and while we sing.

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Reference: Brent Kercheville, James Burton Coffman

“Shining Through the Gloom”
Matthew 5:11–16

In a small town far away, a young man started his own business — a five and dime store at the corner of two streets. He was honest, friendly, and the people loved him. His business grew, and before long, he had a chain from coast to coast.

One day, he was taken ill in the hospital, and the doctors feared his life would end soon. He called together all three of his adult children and gave them a challenge: “One of you will become president of this company. To decide which one deserves it, I’m going to give each of you a one-dollar bill. Go today and buy whatever you can with that dollar, but when you get back here this evening, whatever you buy must fill this room from corner to corner.”

The first child went to his friend’s farm, gave him the dollar, and bought two bales of hay. He brought them in, undid them, and threw the hay into the air. For a moment, the room was filled with hay, but soon it settled on the floor, and the room wasn’t completely full.

The second child went to Sears, bought two feather pillows, opened them, and scattered the feathers around. The room was momentarily full of feathers, but again, they settled and the corners remained empty.

The third child went to a small store like the one his father had had years ago. He gave the owner his dollar, got change, and invested 50 cents in something “very worthwhile” (as the Bible says), gave 20 cents to two local charities, and 20 cents to the church. That left him with one dime.

With the dime, he bought a matchbook and a candle. He lit the candle, turned off the light switch, and the room was filled — from corner to corner — with light.

His father was delighted. “Well done, my son. You will become president of this company because you understand a very important lesson about life. You understand how to let your light shine.”

Every believer eventually discovers this truth: Following Jesus will bless you, but it will also cost you.

Matthew 5:11–16 is Jesus’ way of preparing His disciples for the cost — and then revealing the incredible calling that comes with it. He tells them that persecution is not a sign of failure but of faithfulness, and that the very people the world tries to silence are the ones God appoints to shine.

This passage is not for the casual Christian. It is for the committed disciple — the one who wants to live visibly for Christ even when it’s uncomfortable.

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.”

Jesus shifts from general teaching to personal address: “Blessed are you…”
He looks His disciples in the eyes. He looks you in the eyes.

A. Persecution Is Personal

It’s not theoretical. It’s not distant. It’s not for “other Christians.” It’s for anyone who lives openly for Christ.

B. Persecution Is Predictable

Jesus says when, not if. The world resists what it cannot control. Darkness resists light. Pride resists truth.

C. Persecution Is Purposeful

Jesus says, “because of Me.” Not because of personality, politics, or provocation — but because of Christ.
When you suffer because of Him, you are standing in the long line of prophets, martyrs, and faithful witnesses who refuse to hide their devotion.

D. Persecution Is Ironic

Jesus says, “Rejoice and be glad.”

Why rejoice?
• Because persecution means your faith is visible.
• Because persecution means your life is making a difference.
• Because persecution means heaven is watching.
• Because persecution means your reward is great.

Persecution is not a sign of God’s absence — it is a sign of His nearness.

In Matthew, chapter 5, verse 13 we find Jesus speaking to His disciples, imparting to them a truth that is as relevant today as it was over two thousand years ago. He says, "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot."

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus calls us to be the salt of the earth.

Let's unpack the idea of Embracing Our Identity as Salt

Firstly, salt enhances flavor. It brings out the best in food.

Now, let's imagine for a moment that we are standing in a kitchen. On the counter in front of us is a bowl of soup. It's a good soup, made with fresh ingredients and cooked with care. But something is missing. It lacks flavor. It's bland. It's uninteresting. So, what do we do? We reach for the salt. With just a pinch of salt, the soup is transformed. It's flavorful. It's delicious. It's satisfying.

As believers, we're called to bring out the best in our church community.
We're called to enhance the spiritual atmosphere.
We're called to add value. We're called to make things better.
We're called to be positive influencers.

How do we do this?
By living out our faith authentically.
By loving others genuinely.
By encouraging consistently.
By praying fervently.
By speaking truthfully.
By acting justly.
By walking humbly.

Secondly, salt preserves. It keeps things from going bad. “You are the salt of the earth.”

Salt in the ancient world was not primarily seasoning — it was preservation.

Without salt, everything decayed.

As believers, we're called to maintain unity.
We're called to promote peace.
We're called to prevent division.
We're called to protect the truth.

How do we do this?
By resolving conflicts biblically.
By correcting lovingly.
By leading humbly.
By following faithfully.

Thirdly, salt creates thirst. It makes people want to drink. As believers, we're called to create spiritual thirst in our church community. We're called to make people thirsty for God. We're called to make people thirsty for truth. We're called to make people thirsty for righteousness.

Matthew 5:6 “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”

How do we do this?
By living out our faith pleasantly.
By loving others compellingly.
By encouraging consistently.
By praying fervently.
By speaking truthfully.
By acting justly.
By walking humbly.

Lastly, salt heals. It has antiseptic properties. As believers, we're called to mend broken hearts. We're called to restore broken relationships. We're called to heal broken lives.

How do we do this?
By comforting those who mourn.
By encouraging those who are discouraged.
By helping those who are hurting.
By praying for those who are sick.
By speaking words of life.
By showing acts of kindness.

But we need to remember that Salt Can Lose Its Saltiness

Not chemically — but spiritually. Salt becomes useless when it becomes contaminated.

The danger for believers is not persecution — it’s blending in.

When Christians lose their distinctiveness, they lose their influence.

“You are the light of the world.”

Jesus doesn’t say, “Try to be light.” He says, “You are the light.”

Have you noticed how even the faintest glow can calm a room?
A nightlight in a child’s hallway, a candle on a windowsill during a storm, a porch lamp that says, “You’re welcome here.”
Light doesn’t shout. It simply shines.
It takes up residence in dark places and changes what we can see and how we feel.
That’s the way Jesus talks about your life—simple, steady, warm light.
Not a spotlight on your name, but a lamp that helps weary people find their way to the Father.

We live in a world of flickers and fears. Headlines howl and anxieties echo.

Yet into that noise, Jesus whispers, “Let your light shine.”

Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
We are carriers of the Light of the World. We don’t manufacture it; we receive it from Jesus.
We don’t hoard it; we hold it out.
And when we do, something beautiful happens, fear gives way to faith.

Have you ever wondered if your light is too small to make a difference? The enemy loves that whisper. He’s been peddling that line since Eden. But Jesus thinks otherwise. He sees power in a single candle. He sees beauty in little flames gathered together. He sees your life as a lantern in His hands, set on a stand that only He could have chosen for you. The stand might be a classroom, a cubicle, a kitchen, or a hospital ward. It might be a coffee table scattered with homework or a quiet chair where you pray names heavenward. In each place, the Lord is ready to use your light.

“LET your light so shine.” That word LET matters. It sounds small, but it is full of life. It means there is light ready to be seen. It means something has already been given.

“Let your light so shine before men.” Those words place the light somewhere. The light is seen in front of people. It lives where people live. It shines in public places, in shared spaces, in regular hours.

Light shows what is real. Your life reveals truth in a world confused by lies.

People lost in darkness look for direction. Your faithfulness becomes a compass pointing toward Christ.

Light uncovers what hides in shadows. Your courage exposes injustice. Your purity exposes immorality. Your honesty exposes corruption.

People are drawn to warmth and clarity. Your kindness, compassion, and joy attract people to Jesus.

“That they may see your good works.” The verse moves from light to sight. People are meant to see. What do they see? They see works. They see what we do. Good works are not flashes. Good works are practiced. Good works are learned in the quiet with Jesus and then carried out in the day.

Bringing a meal without fanfare.
Sitting with a grieving friend.
Mowing a neighbor’s yard when they aren’t able.
Keeping a promise when plans shift.
Owning up to a mistake before anyone asks.

People can see these things. They are visible.

These works are not a show. They are fruit. They come from His life in ours. As we stay close, our hands learn His patterns. Our choices learn His heartbeat. Little by little, a way of life takes shape that can be seen.

Here is the end of the verse. The light leads to sight.

“…that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Your life is meant to be a window, not a mirror. People shouldn’t look at you and admire you — they should look through you and see Him.

Jesus teaches that persecution and witness are connected.

The world tries to silence the very people God calls to shine.

When you are insulted — shine. When you are misunderstood — shine. When you are excluded — shine. When you are pressured to compromise — shine. When you are tempted to hide — shine.

The world doesn’t need more noise. It needs salt that preserves truth. It needs light that reveals Christ.

And Jesus says: “That’s you.”

PLEASE BOW WITH ME AS I CLOSE WITH A PRAYER…

“Lord, make me faithful when it’s costly,
courageous when it’s difficult,
and visible when it’s tempting to hide.
Make me salt in a decaying world and light in a darkened world.
Let my life point others to You.”
And we ask ALL this in your Son’s name. AMEN.

INVITATION

Sin No More
John 7:53 – John 8:11

INTRODUCTION: Good morning church. We will start with a historical introduction before we look at this section. This story is well known and often used to show the compassion of Jesus. Before we begin, we need to make a note about the markings found in your Bibles concerning this text. Many Bibles will mark either in the footnotes or directly in the text that this story is not found in the earliest and best Greek manuscripts of the Gospel of John. Scholars note that some ancient manuscripts place this story in different parts of John or even in the Gospel of Luke.

In his New Testament Commentary William Hendriksen wrote:
“Though it cannot now be proved that this story formed an integral part of the Fourth Gospel, neither is it possible to establish the opposite with any degree of finality. We believe moreover that what is recorded here really took place and contains nothing in conflict with the apostolic spirit.”

We will study the narrative as it has come down to us.

I. The Law – Let us begin with John 8:1-6 – “1. but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. 3. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst 4. they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. 5. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” 6. This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.” [ESV] In chapter 7 we saw that Jesus has come to Jerusalem, and He is now sitting and teaching in the temple.

A. In verse 3 the narrator tells us that the scribes and Pharisees present a woman who has been caught in the act of adultery and place her amid this crowd. I visualize this as being like Matthew 5:1. The custom of sitting down to teach was a procedure long followed in the early church. Sitting to teach was an indication of authority. J.R. Dummelow noted that in the "early church, the preacher sat, and the congregation, including the emperor, stood."
B. In verse 4 the narrator describes what is said: They say to him, teacher this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Twice this information is given to us and here it is with the scribes and Pharisees own words to Jesus. In verse 5 they continue by telling Jesus what the law commands and asking Him, “So what do you say?” - What do you say?
C. Verse 6 is the most telling part of what is going on here, telling us that They said this to test him. That they might have some charge to bring against him. We know that this is not a legitimate question but a trap. They were not really concerned because they caught this person sinning and came to Him because they didn’t know what to do. This is the sort of thing that we see in the other Gospels. The religious leaders are always tempting, testing, pressing, trying to catch Jesus because they want to arrest Him.

1. I think first we should look at what the law of Moses has to say since they refer to it. Leviticus 20:10 reads, “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.” Likewise, Deuteronomy 22:22 says, “If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.”
2. The text there in Leviticus and Deuteronomy doesn't say stoning, however, that's how the Jews typically executed the death penalty. They are reflecting what the law says when they say that this person is to be stoned. We also want to recognize that she's not just simply accused of this. The story indicates that she's been caught red-handed, in the act.
3. When you read the law, what does the law say is to happen in this situation? Looking at Leviticus and Deuteronomy, what exactly is supposed to happen? The law says not only the woman, but also the man is to die. Something's not right here.
4. If this is a legitimate story and a legitimate problem, why didn't you bring the man as the law requires as well? What is going on here that he's not involved and they've only brought her? Then I wonder how they even accomplished catching somebody in the very act of adultery and yet did not hang on to both as the law requires?
5. They are pressing Jesus and trying to test Him by picking this time when He is teaching a crowd of people. They bring in the woman and put her in the midst, and they say we've caught her in the act of adultery. The law says that we're supposed to stone her. Trying to put Him on the spot they ask; what do you say?
6. As an aside, there were two schools of Pharisees at this time and with the predominant one, Hillel, punishment of death for this offence was obsolete. Some think they wished to make Jesus unpopular with the people by inducing Him to advocate its revival. Others think it more likely they wished to embroil Him with the Roman authorities, who would not allow a death-sentence to be executed without their permission.

II. Jesus’ Response – Jesus knows the purpose of these leaders. They do not love the law of God. They are not put off by sin. They just want to dispatch Jesus. They want Jesus arrested and killed. They do not want to deal with Him any longer, but Jesus does not immediately respond. Rather than looking up toward these accusers and addressing them, Jesus bends over and writes on the ground. This is not what these leaders wanted. They wanted a response from Jesus.

A. Verse 7 says, “And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”” They keep pressing Him for an answer until He stands up and says to them, let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.

1. Let's first talk about what this doesn't mean, and then we can talk about what Jesus is doing with this response. It is important for us to recognize that He is not excusing her sin, nor is He suggesting that only perfect people can offer up a judgement which is a conclusion that some wish to draw.
2. This isn't saying that anybody who hasn't sinned in their life should be the one to throw the first stone. The reason that will not hold is because repeatedly, Jesus, as well as the New Testament writers, call upon us to pass righteous judgment. Matthew 18:15-20, “15. “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 18. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.””
3. There's obviously judgment going on. Jesus is not teaching something here to suggest that, if somebody sins, you can't even mention that because you're a sinner also. Repeatedly, we're told that that is not the case. We're commanded to reprove, to rebuke, to exhort, to correct. It's the very purpose of what we're trying to do together in encouraging one another toward obedience and holiness and godliness.
4. We need judgment to deem somebody needing correction; to ostracize a sinner; to baptize anybody; to stand up for truth. To say that we can never judge is to go beyond the scriptures, for Jesus also commands us to judge, but with righteousness. We saw that last time in John 7:24.

B. Jesus answers from the scriptures. If we are going to invoke what Leviticus and Deuteronomy say to do, that is, they are supposed to put the adulterer and the adulteress to death, what does the scripture say of them?

1. Deuteronomy 17:6-7 says, “On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness. The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people.”
2. Under Mosaic law, execution required qualified witnesses, and there must be two or three. Where are they? Both Deuteronomy 13:9 and 17:7 declare that the hands of the witnesses were to be the first to act.

C. Jesus’ statement demonstrated that these men were not as eager as they claimed to carry out this command from Moses, and neither were they morally competent to do so. The Law made it clear that the witnesses were required to carry out the stoning. They had violated the Law by not bringing the man with whom this woman had been involved.

1. As Guy N. Woods put it “The issue was not whether the Law of Moses should be respected and obeyed—the Lord, in contrast with these Jews, gave the law its proper place and fulfilled it—the issue was whether these hypocritical pretenders were the proper representatives of it and possessed of the moral competence to carry it out.”
2. When was God's word ever to be used as a lynch mob? Because that's what is happening in the story. God did not give the laws of Leviticus and Deuteronomy so that Israelites could go around knocking on doors and busting through windows to find who they could catch sinning and get them killed.
3. I wonder what kind of heart people must have to find a couple in the act of adultery, decide to seize the woman, let the man go so that they can get her killed. What we are seeing is the scribes and Pharisees not at all interested in carrying out the law of God. They don't care about this woman. They don't care that a sin has been committed. If they had; (1) they would not be testing Jesus, (2) the accusers failed to bring the man involved, which violated the proper procedures of the Mosaic code itself, (3) they would know what to do because the law is clear.

D. Let’s take a minute to consider another problem. Why do we pass judgment? Why do we expose darkness? I submit to you that there are two reasons. One is a righteous reason, and one is a sinful reason.

1. The sinful reason for condemnation is to make ourselves feel better. We want to elevate ourselves. “At least I’ve never committed a sin like that!” The point is simply embarrassment of the other person and self-righteous thinking of ourselves.
2. The right reason for condemnation is because we want people to know what they are doing is wrong and they need to turn to the mercy and grace of God. No one will find grace unless they know they are in sin. No one can be saved unless they understand they are condemned.
3. We saw this back in chapter 3 when we saw Jesus teaching that we are condemned already. We point out darkness so people will come to the light, not to elevate ourselves and make ourselves feel better. The Jewish Leaders claim she was caught in this sin but have let the man go free yet desire the woman to be killed. This is not justice or righteousness at all. These people have made a mockery of God’s law.
4. It was not the business of these leaders to accuse and judge the woman. But that of the husband and the judges.

E. Verse 8, “And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground.” Another period of silence ensued, as the Lord kept writing. The older heads in the Pharisees' company saw instantly that their scheme had failed. Not in a million years were they prepared to produce a witness, much less a sinless witness. Jesus was giving them time to reflect. God is long suffering.

1. What was the purpose of the law of Moses? To show that everybody falls short of the law of God, that everybody falls short of His character, that nobody is obedient, that all of us are condemned, that all of us are sinners. The function of law was to show us that we have a problem with sin and we need a Savior. We need someone to deal with our sins.
2. I think that is critical to understanding what's going on with these Jews. Why have they captured her? To test Jesus. Does that make them “holier than thou”? They act like it until Jesus reminds them of their sinful own nature that they are ignoring.
3. You don't seem to grasp what you've done. In your effort to try to do harm to this woman and to test me, look at all the things that you've done yourself. Where is your heart for this person? Where is your care for her soul? Why have you not done what God has specifically called for you to do? It is an important picture of what's happening here.

F. You'll notice in our story in verse 9, “Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.” [NKJV] However we understand that phrase, it certainly seemed to hit the heart of them and they recognized how they had handled the situation was completely wrong and a violation of everything that the law of Moses had said.

1. The Saviour's silence — the total absence (or silence) of any witness against the woman — the watchfulness of the throng of people — all of that became suddenly a situation of profound embarrassment to the Pharisees. The oldest, being the more perceptive, led the way, and they all left.
2. What caused them to leave wasn’t embarrassment alone — it was conviction. Their conscience, the God-given internal gauge of right and wrong, had been pricked, and in that moment, they realized they were not fit to judge. This moment illustrates how powerful and spiritually sensitive the conscience can be, especially when exposed to the truth of God’s Word.

III. Neither Do I Condemn You – Listen to what Jesus does in verses 10-11. “When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, "Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?'' She said, "No one Lord.'' And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”[NKJV]

A. “Neither do I condemn you.” This phrase is the hope of every human, the words we need to hear from our Lord. We need an advocate. We need somebody to stand before us because of our sins, to come to our rescue, and to be the defense attorney. John would describe it later in 1^st John 2:1 “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”[ESV]
B. She needed somebody to come to her defense, Jesus does that, and He has the power to forgive sins.

1. We realize the woman is not innocent. We recall John 3:17 – “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” We don't need condemnation for we're already condemned. There's no point to condemning this woman as she's already condemned.
2. The problem is she needs salvation; she needs to have her sins dealt with, she's guilty. We have the same problem, we need salvation. Jesus has the power to come into this woman's life and to be able to forgive her of her sins and to say that I do not condemn you as well.
3. The woman's humble and respectful answer, Jesus' refusal to condemn, despite His divine knowledge of all the truth, and His gentle admonition "sin no more" — this is the beautiful conclusion of this incident. Jesus' mercy to the woman is possibly the reason some have suspected this passage. Hendriksen wrote: “Augustine definitely stated that certain individuals had removed from their codices the section regarding the adulteress, because they feared women would appeal to this story as an excuse for infidelity … Hence the suggestion that this section was actually part of John's Gospel but (later) removed cannot be entirely dismissed.”

C. Turn your thoughts back to the Jewish leaders. How could these leaders get to such a state? How do you get to a level of hatred where you would let a guilty man go free, condemn only the woman, and bring this into a public forum in the midst of multitudes of people in the temple courts breaking your own laws in the effort? How is it possible for people to become so hateful toward another? It was possible and I suggest it is just as possible for us to express that kind of hatred and that kind of arrogant self-righteousness when we forget our own sinfulness.

1. There is something so precious in what you see Jesus doing, how He had compassion and love for every single soul. We're already condemned. God has given us a whole book of laws that on every page tells us how we've fallen short. We are clearly shown that we are not living according to the standard that God has given us.
2. Jesus would be of no help if He comes into the world and says, that's right, you're all a bunch of sinners, just wanted to make sure you knew it. We need a Savior. We need somebody to come and say, neither do I condemn you.
3. We will see sin and injustice, but we must understand we're not called to be a lynch mob. We're not called to act like these leaders but to display the graciousness of God, to call people to grace. We are told to expose darkness, but that function is not to simply say all of you are a bunch of terrible people and develop a hatred toward the world.
4. There are many times we will have lessons where we might walk away with an us-versus-them feeling. We're pretty good. We're not so bad. Those awful people out there, they're so full of sins, they're so wicked that we need to hunker down, get in a bunker, and don't let the sin cooties touch us.
5. Where does that kind of attitude come from? Where does that kind of self-righteousness come from? Where does that kind of hatred come from? It comes from the fact that we forget that we're just as sinful. It happens when we forget we need Jesus to say to each of us, just as much as to the world, neither do I condemn you. How sad it is that we can so quickly forget where we've come from, how the grace of God has affected our lives and how much we need the grace of God as every single person does.

D. We are to expose darkness to show people grace, not to lift ourselves up or to act like we're something. What I find valuable about this story is that God forgives all sins. There is not a sin that you've committed that God will not forgive. There is not a sin that any person has ever committed that cannot be forgiven. There's great hope in thinking about being able to stand before God on the day of judgment and Him being able to say, I don't condemn you either. Romans 8:1 is so powerful – “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

CONCLUSION: Sin No More – Jesus is not blowing off this woman’s sin. Jesus gives the instruction to stop living a life of sin. Sin is not treated lightly. Sinners are offered a new life in Christ. Christ’s mercy drives us to loving obedience. You are forgiven! Make God’s will your will! Steer clear of sin because you have been forgiven. This is one of the greatest tools God has given us to fight the battle against sin. You are undeservedly forgiven. Go and leave your life of sin because you are in the hands of God’s grace.

On our own we deserve that condemnation. Condemnation hangs over us. We should feel the weight and the gravity of our sins. This woman does. She's not claiming innocence. She understands the weight of her sins. She needs salvation. God forgives all sins no matter if people consider them big sins or small sins. To God they are all sins.

In this world the repercussions of our sins unfortunately, we still must deal with, but that doesn't mean God doesn't forgive that sin. God will forgive every single sin, and it is our job then to tell the world about that. To tell the world that Jesus will give you a fresh start. That Jesus gives you a new life. See the weight of your sin and to come to Him believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God who died for your sins, and be determined to no longer live that way anymore. To go and sin no more. To recognize that He's given you something precious, undeserved forgiveness.

What will you do with that grace? What will you do with what God has done to your life? What will you do now that you've been forgiven? Will you throw away that grace and live how you want to and give yourself the condemnation that you deserve? Or will you give your life to Jesus and follow Him with all your heart?

Won't you come to Him this morning and turn away from your sins and be immersed in water for the forgiveness of your sins? Let Jesus say those words to you, neither do I condemn you, now go and sin no more.

Won't you come while we stand and sing?

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Reference: Brent Kercheville, James Burton Coffman

Am I Blessed?
Matthew 5:1-8

A man was being tailgated by a stressed-out woman on a busy boulevard.
Suddenly, the light turned yellow, just in front of him.
He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.
The tailgating woman was furious and honked her horn, screaming in frustration as she missed her chance to get through the intersection, dropping her cell phone and makeup.
As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up.
He took her to the police station where she was searched, fingerprinted, photographed, and placed in a holding cell. After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door.
She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal items.

He said, "I'm very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, making hand gestures to the guy in front of you, and cussing up a storm at him.
I noticed the 'What Would Jesus Do' and the 'Follow Me to Sunday-School' bumper stickers, and Naturally... I assumed you had stolen the car."

This morning, we start a study of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, which is recorded in Matthew 5-7.
--I’m calling it, “Am I Blessed?”
Jesus begins His Sermon on the Mount by redefining what it means to be blessed.
True blessing is not found in worldly success but in a transformed heart shaped by God’s grace.
Jesus begins not with commands but with blessings. Grace precedes instruction.
Before Jesus tells us what to do, He tells us who we are.
Each Beatitude builds on the previous one, forming a spiritual progression.

Matthew 5:1-2 – “Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them saying...”
--There’s one theme that runs consistently through this entire teaching segment:
Christ-followers are to think and act differently than the world around them.
We’re not supposed to be thermometers adjusting to the moral climate of our environment.
--We’re to be thermostats setting the standard for the culture.

The Bible reminds us that we’re in a battle between kingdoms:
the kingdom of the world and the Kingdom of God --AND… SPOILER ALERT … We’re told which kingdom ultimately wins the battle.
The important thing is who you chose to serve.
I want this church here in Chardon to not just grow in number but to grow in integrity and character.
I want us to grow in maturity and become more like Christ.
I want us to be people who, in such a positive way, live differently from the world.

Matthew 5:3 – “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
     • Poor in spirit means recognizing our spiritual bankruptcy.
     • The world says, “Be self-made.” Jesus says, “Be God-dependent.”
     • Promise: Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Notice that Jesus didn’t say, “Blessed are the poor.”
Jesus loved the poor such as the widow who only had two mites and Lazarus, the beggar who ate crumbs from the rich man’s table.
Blessed are those who recognize that they are spiritually impoverished.
--This is an honest evaluation of ourselves realizing we’re not able to do much on our own.

Remember the parable of the Pharisee who worshipped next to a tax collector in the temple?
The Pharisee boasted of his spiritual riches: “I fast, I tithe, I keep the law. I’m good!  I’m better than that tax collector,” he said.
The tax collector just humbly prayed, ”God be merciful to me a sinner.”
--Jesus said the tax collector went away justified; the Pharisee did not.

As long as we’re proud of our goodness and feel self-sufficient we’re out of God’s favor.
When we see ourselves as spiritually bankrupt, we’re ready to turn to God for His help and receive His riches.
Without a doubt, one of the most popular hymns in America is Amazing Grace.
I know that we ALL know the first stanza: Amazing grace! How sweet the sound! That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.

Matthew 5:4 – “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”
     • Mourning here is grief over sin, injustice, and suffering.
     • God meets honest sorrow with comfort.
     • Promise: They shall be comforted.

What type of mourning and grieving is Jesus referring to?
The word translated as “mourn” is a word that points to the heart-rending, soul-wracking, eyes-overflowing-with-tears kind of mourning.
It recognizes the loss of something important.
It understands that there is a hole in the heart that needs to be repaired.
We need to despise sin... so it follows that We should especially despise our own sins.
We’re told over and over in Scripture to repent of sin—to recognize how much it offends the heart of God and then grieve over it.

James 4:6-10 “⁶ Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
⁷ Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
⁸ Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.
Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
⁹ Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
¹⁰ Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.”

Do you experience a godly sorrow that leads to repentance?
2^nd Corinthians 7:10 – “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.”
Repentance has become a neglected word in the church.
We may sit in our pews Sunday after Sunday, thinking that God ought to be glad that we have agreed to bless Him with our presence.
One of the central events in our worship service is the partaking of the Lord’s Supper. The Bible tells us that when we do that, we proclaim the death of Christ.

Romans 5:8 – “But God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
It has been said: “Repentance precedes the blessing of God. A lack of repentance shuts off the power of God.
There will be no revival or renewal without repentance. And there will be no repentance without godly sorrow.
Until we come to the place where we truly mourn over our sin, we will never see the hand of God revealed.”
The great thing is that when we show that godly sorrow and repent, God comforts us.
Oh, what joy to know our sins are forgiven.
We’ve come humbly before God in a godly sorrow that produces repentance.
We want to change our life and God blesses our efforts.
Not because of what we’ve done, but because of Who He is!

Matthew 5:5 - “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”
     • Meekness is not weakness; it is controlled strength.
     • A meek person is teachable, gentle, and surrendered.
     • Promise: They shall inherit the earth.

What do you think of when you think of a meek person?
You probably wouldn’t consider it a compliment if someone said, “You are the meekest person I know.”
You probably think of someone who is insecure, unassertive, or timid. That’s not what the Bible means by meekness. Meekness is not timidity or indecisiveness.
The Biblical word ‘meekness’ means “strength under control.”

It was a word used to describe a horse that had been taught how to respond well to the bridle and bit.
When a powerful horse is under control of its rider, it’s a meek horse.
It’s under the authority of the one who guides it.
The meek animal surrenders himself and allows the rider to control him.
Meekness is an inner attitude that results in controlled reactions.

Consider these people whom the Bible describes as being meek:
Abraham
Moses
David
Jesus
They all did brave and courageous things
When Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek,” He was commending those who had surrendered their strong, self-will to the authority of God in their daily lives.

The meek surrender to God’s will.
“Meekness is allowing the One who is meek and lowly at heart to rule our lives, our motions, our behavior.”
Jesus promised the meek would “inherit the earth.”
Jesus was saying that the meek will share with Him as heirs of the Kingdom of God.
We think the assertive – the self-promoting – are the ones who will get ahead.
--But Jesus promised that in His kingdom, those who are submissive to Him will inherit the leadership of the earth.

Matthew 5:6 – “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”
     • This is the turning point of the Beatitudes.
     • Righteousness means God’s will lived out personally, relationally, and socially.
     • Promise: They shall be filled.

“What do we crave most? Comfort or Christ?”

Most of us in the United States have no real concept of real hunger or real thirst.
God has blessed us with an ample supply of food and abundant water supplies.
Isaiah 55:2 – “"Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what is does not satisfy?”
What are you hungry for?
What do you crave every day?
If I could read your mind what thoughts would you be most focused on?
Are you hungry for wealth, popularity, status, sports, pleasure, golf, fishing, shopping?
What are you passionate about?

Jesus said that we’re blessed when we hunger and thirst for righteousness.
We receive God’s favor if we hunger and thirst to be close to Him and live like Him when you mature spiritually, you hunger for the worship of God, the fellowship with Christian people, and the study of God’s Word.

Even though Moses had a close relationship to God, he asks God the following in Exodus 33:13 – “If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you.”

And, David says in Psalms 63:1 – “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”
Moses, David and Paul already knew God in a very deep sense.
But what they meant was that they wanted to know Him more intimately, personally, and powerfully.
They had a hunger and thirst for God. They had a passion for Him.

CONCLUSION: Do you see how different the Christian is in attitude and spirit?
The world says, “Blessed are the rich, the proud, the self confident, they will get ahead.”
Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in Spirit, theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
The world says, “Blessed are the funny, the light-hearted, the positive thinkers, they will be popular.”
Jesus says, “Blessed are those who are genuinely sorry for their sins; I will comfort them with grace and forgiveness.”
The world says, “Blessed are the independent thinkers, the assertive. They will gain respect from people and be powerful.”
Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek who humbly submit their strengths to my authority; they will inherit the earth.”
The world says, “Blessed are those who are hungry for success, the ‘Type A’ personalities who are ambitious enough to make their mark in the world.”
Jesus said, “Blessed are those who are hungry for a relationship with me; they will be filled.”
Everything the world has to offer you will leave you empty, guilty, but only Jesus forgives, saves, and satisfies.
Psalm 34:8 – “Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.”
Becoming a Community of Blessing
     • Cultivate dependence — daily prayer, confession, surrender.
     • Practice mercy — forgive quickly, serve generously.
     • Pursue purity — guard your heart, simplify your devotion.
     • Live counterculturally — embody Christlike character in a self-centered world.

The Potter and the Clay
     • Imagine clay in the hands of a potter. It does not strive, pretend, or perform. It simply yields.
     • The Beatitudes describe the clay God can shape into the likeness of Christ.

“Lord, make me poor in spirit, honest in mourning, meek in posture, hungry for righteousness, rich in mercy, and pure in heart.”

Rivers of Living Water
John 7:19-52

INTRODUCTION: Good morning church. John's gospel continues to show us the pattern of unbelief toward Jesus. John continues to emphasize what true belief looks like. His purpose is that those who would read this gospel and hear these words would come to the true belief that Jesus is the Son of God, and it would be seen by their actions. It's not simply some kind of mental ascent, but a radical life change.

As we come into the rest of John chapter 7, I think John, while pressing the story forward, is summarizing many of the messages that have been found in this gospel. It feels to me like an encapsulation of concepts of unbelief, those who are unwilling to follow Jesus, and the renewed message by Jesus to come to Him for true life. As well as Jesus trying to break through their dull and stubborn hearts because they don't want to see who He really is. All that message is bundled up into this final section of John 7.

I. Rejecting The Truth – We’ll read John 7:19-24 first. “19. Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?” 20. The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?” 21. Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel at it. 22. Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. 23. If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man's whole body well? 24. Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.””

A. If you recall earlier Jesus had told them He was speaking on God’s authority and if their will was to do the will of the Father they could determine that. He continues with that thinking and teaching through this section. In verse 19 He is reminding them they are lawbreakers, Moses gave you the law, right? So how come none of you do it? I'm sure that won over a lot of people.

1. Here are the people of God, and they revere Moses greatly. As Israelites, the Jewish people, Moses gave them the law, and yet they don’t follow it. He points out exactly what He means by that in verse 19, “Why do you seek to kill me?”
2. I think that should have caused them to pause. Jesus is reading the hearts of the people. I recognize that you're a bunch of lawbreakers, and I know that you're trying to kill me. Remember the reason why Jesus does not go to the feast with His brothers is because the Jews are plotting to kill Him. Here Jesus is telling the crowd, I know what's in your heart.
3. Rather than listening to Jesus and considering how His divine knowledge can know their hearts and their thoughts, they simply deflect what Jesus says. They say “You have a demon!...” I’m told that in that day, in that parlance, if you said to somebody “you have a demon”, that means you're nuts. It was the way to say that you did not take that person seriously.
4. You don't know what you're talking about. You're paranoid. Nobody here wants to kill you. They are not being truthful are they? In chapter 5 Jesus was in Jerusalem and heals the paralyzed man at the pool. Jesus reminds them of this in verse 21. “I did one work, and you all marvel at it.”
5. John 5:18 tells us, “This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.” We haven't seen Jesus back in Jerusalem since that time, but now He's returned to the city, and what are the Jews wanting to do?  John 7:1 says "... the Jews were seeking to kill him."

B. Their response is “Who is seeking to kill you?” They're deflecting. Oh no, you're just nuts. We're not trying to kill you. I suggest that is a common response to the word of God, deflection. Put the shields up. No, no, that doesn't apply to me. We are good people. I hope that other person heard that lesson. It's not to us. It's to everybody else. They all have the problem, not us.

1. Jesus was putting His finger right on the problem. Notice how Jesus deals with them in verses 22 and 23. I’m paraphrasing, He says, all right, let me show you. Moses gave you circumcision, here John gives a parenthesis because Moses didn't give the command for circumcision, it was part of the covenant given Abraham in Genesis 17. However, the law that was given through Moses formally codified this as a mandatory religious commandment. No uncircumcised male was permitted to eat the Passover meal.
2. He poses the problem; What do you do if the eighth day falls on the Sabbath? Do you go ahead and fulfill the law and circumcise the child on the eighth day? Even though it's a Sabbath and even though you're not supposed to do work. Of course you do. That's what He's pointing out in verse 23.
3. You understand that you are keeping the law of Moses, that you are perfecting the child, because now they can obey God as God had commanded them to do. If you do that on the Sabbath, how can you criticize me for healing this man so that he can now participate and obey God? He can now worship God, serve God, keep the law of Moses.

C. Jesus is trying to help them see that they are judging Him with false judgment. He says, don't judge by appearances. We notice that Jesus does not say that a person should never judge. People love to quote His words out of context, “Do not judge.” However what Jesus taught there is the same as He is teaching here. You don't judge by your own misconceptions, your own perceptions, your own traditions, your own “I think”. You judge according to right judgment, which is the word of God.

1. He's telling these Jews that you are passing judgment upon me that I have not been sent by God because you have misconceptions about Me and My purpose. You're unwilling to listen to what I'm trying to teach you. You won't hear anything that I have to say. You've already passed your judgment. You've already decided that I'm not eligible to be the Messiah, and that's why you're trying to kill me.
2. If they were listening to what Jesus is saying, I know it's in your heart that you want to kill me, that should have given them pause. They did not consider that might be one of the many evidences that He is from God. How did you know that? You're at least a prophet. You're at least somebody from God to be able to know what's going on in my mind… but they don't want to do that. They don't want to listen, and so they continue to pass false judgments against Him.
3. It is important for us, as true believers, to make sure that we do not pass superficial judgments, not only upon one another, but upon people in the world. It's not about judging by physical standards or by things that we see, but it's about what God says. We must continue to pass that judgment.
4. We live in a time where passing judgment based on what the word of God says is going to be highly ridiculed and scorned. We will hear a whole lot of — “who are you to judge my lifestyle?” We must stand up recalling John 7:24, and judge by right judgment. You're not doing what God says. This is not my judgment. This is what God says, and that's the end of the story.
5. We need to take a stand and recognize that God has not only allowed us to do that, but has commanded us to tell the world those right judgments that this is what God says to do to be right with Him.

II. Reasons For Unbelief – After Jesus said that, did they listen and agree they should hear Him? Let’s look at John 7:25-36 “25. Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? 26. And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? 27. But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.” 28. So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I come from. But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know." We will stop and look at this.

A. When we read verses 25 and 26, we might think, they're finally getting it. They're beginning to wonder maybe He is the Christ. Then in verse 27, they say, but we know where this man comes from and when Christ appears, no one will know where he's from.

1. Where did that perception come from? Scholars suggest this was Rabbinic tradition and interpretation of scripture. Jewish thought included a concept that the Messiah would be born as a regular man but remain completely hidden, anonymous, and unknown even to himself until a sudden public manifestation. Malachi 3:1 says, “…the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple;…” Taking this verse literally led people to expect a sudden, miraculous descent from heaven.
2. During the centuries leading up to Christ, non-biblical Jewish texts (such as 2^nd Esdras and 2^nd Baruch) grew highly popular. These texts frequently described the Messiah as a hidden, mystical figure kept secret by God until the absolute end of days, reinforcing the idea that his earthly background would be a total mystery.

B. They just pass quick judgment and say, he can't be the Christ. Self-imposed barriers often occur if we are not careful and we can’t think past them. Jesus is doing things that clearly reveals He is the Messiah, but they’re unable to see it and unwilling to believe it. They have a preconceived notion about Him that the Scriptures don't uphold. I suspect that is true in the religious world today. We have ideas and notions about what Christianity is supposed to be, the way God is supposed to be, how God is supposed to act, and what He's to do in our lives. Unfortunately, we often don’t get past those preconceived ideas, and they can prevent us from growing in our faith.
C. They quickly turn away from him in verse 27. We see how Jesus responds in verse 28. “You know me and you know where I come from.” Indeed, this is what they believe. Jesus continues though; “But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know.”

1. He's just called them lawbreakers. He says, the one who sent me is true, (which is the father), and you don't know him. You have the law of Moses, and you do not know God at all.
2. Verse 29. “I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.” It's evident you don't know the father, because if you knew the father, you would know me. We have seen this before and John is bringing it forward again. The only way to know the father is to come to the son. If you don't know the son and you do not come to the son, then you absolutely do not know the father.
3. There is no way to come to God, to have salvation, to have true faith and belief unless you come to Jesus. Jesus makes it clear in verse 29. I know him. I've come from him. Is there any plainer way of saying I've come from heaven? Alright, you think you know where I've come from? I know the father, He sent me and I've come to do His will.
4. We notice verse 30 has a connecting word. It might be; so, then, therefore, or at this. “So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.”[ESV] They will not listen.
5. Verse 31 is interesting because there are many people who begin to kind of get it. “Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”” He's done a lot, maybe He's the Messiah. Look at all the things that He's done to prove himself.

D. Verse 32. “The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.” The crowd is listening to Him, the religious leaders are not, and they continue their stubborn rejection. We run into the same today, those who have their minds so fixed that they will not listen. Do you see the patience of Jesus though?

1. Jesus here in verse 33 continues to work with them. “Jesus then said, “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me.”” He has been telling them He has been sent by the One they do not know, and He is going back to Him. He is spelling it out. Then He adds “…Where I am you cannot come”
2. What do they do? They wonder where He is going. Why as humans, do we not want to listen to God and what He says? I suggest this is an enormous reason for unbelief; we don't truly want to hear what God has to say.
3. We've all experienced that. Approach someone with Acts 2:38 and see what happens. Often you will get the deflection… that doesn't mean what it says. “…Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins…” Hmmm, sounds simple enough to me, not rocket science. Why is it so hard to understand? Because people don't want to understand. They have self-imposed barriers. I don't want to hear that.
4. If we are not careful, we may find the same attitude in us. When we read things in God's Word and it does not jive with our way of thinking, we can so easily dismiss it and not want to learn what God is trying to teach us. This prevents us from seeing Jesus as the bread of life, it prevents us from growing in our faith, it is keeping us from truly seeing who Jesus is and giving our life completely to Him.
5. We may find we do not fully believe and give our life to Him. I submit it is easy to do, to enjoy coming together, reading God's Word, being with each other, a great group of Christians here, and yet not allow the radical life change from God's Word to happen. What's keeping us from seeing Jesus as He claims to be the all-satisfying God?

III. If Anyone Thirsts, Let Him Come To Me and Drink – We are at verse 37. “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.”

A. The symbolism behind the Feast of Tabernacles goes beyond just living in tents. Each day a priest would lead a musical procession down to the Pool of Siloam to fill a golden pitcher with "living water" fed by the Gihon Spring. Remember that pool, the pool where people hoped to be healed? Interesting that should feature here.

1. The crowd would march back to the Temple Mount through the Water Gate, blowing shofars, waving palm branches, and singing Isaiah 12:3: "With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation”.
2. The priest would then pour the water into a silver basin on the west side of the altar alongside a wine offering, symbolizing a prayer for physical rain and the spiritual outpouring of the Holy Spirit. An ancient Jewish saying noted that "he who has not seen the joy of the drawing of water at the Feast of Tabernacles does not know what joy is"
3. On the eighth day, no water was poured, leaving a conspicuous absence that symbolized the end of the festival and a complete dependence on God's future provision, the future outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the Messianic age.
4. Thinking back, we recall that this feast has the overtones of the Exodus, coming out of slavery in Egypt, and how God has blessed them. The time when they would be living in tents hoping for the Promised Land. We recall that in the last study, it wasn't just simply a historical reminder, but it was also a hope to the future how God would pour out His blessings upon all the people.
5. Prophets like Ezekiel brought this promise forward many times. We read in Ezekiel chapters 40-48 of water flowing from the temple and it gets deeper and deeper and begins to stream all over. There is a picture of that with the Feast of Tabernacles.
6. They're pouring out the water on the altar remembering how God gave them water in the wilderness but at the same time thinking about this messianic overtone of when the Messiah comes, then the Spirit's going to be poured out on all flesh and it's going to be a renewal of God's blessings and covenant to the people. Along with that were often prayers for the rain to come upon the land.

B. This is the scene where “Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.”” Jesus is claiming to be the fulfillment of all the symbolism and hope found in the Feast of Tabernacles.

1. When you go without God, your soul gets thirsty, it gets hungry. We were made to be with God. We often do not recognize what we are thirsting and hungering for and try to fill the need with the physical. Just as your body was made for water and food, so your soul was made for God. This is such an important truth that John brings it around again. We recall this from John 4 with the Samaritan woman and the living waters He tells her about, and in John 6 with the bread of life. He is trying to get people to understand—you need God.
2. Unfortunately, people do not grasp this. Jeremiah 2:12-13 – “Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” Rather than going to God who was promised to satisfy, we go to broken cisterns. We go to things in the world that do not satisfy.
3. We go to our sins, we go to our weaknesses, and we go to our flesh. We seek worldly answers. If I just had more comfort, if I just had more money, if I just had this, that, and whatever and we believe that this would be the thing that will make us happy.

IV. Out of His Heart Will Flow Rivers of Living Water – John 7:38, “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”

A. There is a picture of our soul finding all that it needs over and over again when we believe in Jesus. Where from? It is flowing from within us, flowing from our heart.

1. Jesus is calling for true belief, true saving faith, a radical change of the heart. Not about simply meeting certain expectations or doing certain things. A new birth, complete change, and the result is a new life. It is the fulfillment of what the prophets said, God was going to put a new heart in His people. There would be a new covenant, and God would write His laws on their hearts.
2. John interjects in verse 39 “Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” Those who are believers in Christ Jesus they are the ones that are going to receive this Spirit. I think that fits Acts 2:38 right on the nose. “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”
3. Paul writes of this in Titus 3:4-6 - “When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior”

V. Same Dead Hearts – After this offer, notice the same responses from the people. John 7:40-52 – “40. When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.” 41. Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee? 42. Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” 43. So there was a division among the people over him. 44. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

45. The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” 46. The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!” 47. The Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? 48. Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? 49. But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” 50. Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, 51. “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” 52. They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.””

A. Some perk up and think that Jesus is the prophet that Moses spoke about who was to come. Some recognize Jesus to be the Christ. but some find yet another reason to reject him, so they try to arrest Him.
B. I want to note one thing in verse 52 where they say, “Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.” Remarkable, because Jonah came from Galilee, 2^nd Kings 14.

CONCLUSION: Coming to Jesus is not merely changing some external habits. It is not - now you come to church and stop swearing. Coming to Jesus and drinking is to see Jesus as the satisfaction of your thirst. Coming to Jesus is opening your heart to His teaching, letting His words change your mind, your heart, your values, your attitude, your personality, your thinking, and your way of life. Coming to Jesus is to make our will to do the will of God. Coming to Jesus is to seek God’s glory, not our own. Look at what Jesus is offering. Jesus will perpetually and continually quench your thirst. Jesus is the answer for your life. Open your heart to Him and let Him be your everything.

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Reference: Brent Kercheville, James Burton Coffman

Where Can I Hide?
Jonah 1

A MINISTER started out one summer day to visit some of the members of his church that he had not seen for awhile. As he approached one of the houses, he noticed that the TV was on and it appeared that someone was home.
But, even though he knocked on the door several times no one came to the door to acknowledge him. At this point, he thought he would be clever and leave a note on the door that stated just one verse, Revelation 3:20 which says,
“Here I am!
I stand at the door and knock.
If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me."

After putting the note on the door, the minister, feeling very pleased with himself, smiled and left to visit other members.
He returned to that first house later in the day to see if they got his note, and was surprised see a new note hanging on the door.
As he got closer, he noticed this new note had the verse Genesis 3:10 written on it which says,
“I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”

Our sermon this morning is for anyone who has tried to slip into the shadows, convinced that secrecy will protect them from judgment, shame, or the consequences of their choices.
God’s response is not a cold searchlight but a steady pursuit that calls us back into the light.

The first instance of hiding occurs in the Garden of Eden.
Genesis 3
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.  And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”
11 And God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
We Know that God certainly knew the answer to this question!

After disobeying God by eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Adam and Eve realized their nakedness and hid from God among the trees out of shame and fear This act symbolizes the broken relationship between humanity and God due to sin and highlights the natural human response to guilt.

Moses attempted to hide indirectly after killing an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew. Fearing Pharaoh’s wrath, he hid the body in the sand and fled to Midian (Exodus 2:14-15).
11 Now it came about in those days, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his fellow Hebrews and looked at their hard labors; and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his fellow Hebrews.
12 So he looked this way and that, and when he saw that there was no one around, he struck and killed the Egyptian, and hid his body in the sand.
13 Now he went out the next day, and behold, two Hebrews were fighting with each other; and he said to the offender, “Why are you striking your companion?”
14 But he said, “Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and said, “Surely the matter has become known!”
15 When Pharaoh heard about this matter, he tried to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the presence of Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well.

While this was more about escaping human justice, it also reflects a moment of fear and avoidance before God called him to lead Israel, showing that hiding can precede divine preparation and transformation.

Then there is Jonah who represents a different form of hiding — attempting to escape God’s calling. God commanded him to go to Nineveh to preach repentance, but Jonah fled in the opposite direction, boarding a ship to avoid fulfilling God’s mission. His story illustrates that one cannot truly escape God’s presence or purpose, as God pursued him through the storm and the great fish.

Jonah 1
1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”
3 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So, he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.
4 But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up.
5 Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to God.

Now drop down to verse 10
10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.

Verse 15
15 So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.
16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.
17 And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

This led Jonah to come to this realization we find in Jonah 2
7 When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple.
8 Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.
9 But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!”
10 And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.

The result is found in Jonah 3
1Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying,
2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.”
3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord.

Verse 6
6 The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7 And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything.  Let them not feed or drink water,
8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.
9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

These narratives convey that while humans may attempt to hide from God due to fear, guilt, or disobedience, BUT God’s omnipresence ensures that hiding is ultimately futile (Proverbs 15:3).
"The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good"

These stories also emphasize the importance of confronting sin, accepting responsibility, and responding to God’s calling rather than avoiding it.

Psalm 139 reminds us that God knows our paths and our resting places.
1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
5 You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.
7 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.
13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!
24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

I would like to make 3 POINTS about MAN’s ATTEMPT to HIDE from GOD:
#1) Human attempts to hide are always partial.
We can close doors, change routines, and craft stories, but nothing we do removes us from God’s sight.
     • The first humans tried to hide among the trees;
     • Jonah boarded a ship;
     • the prodigal son left home.
In each of these cases, the attempt to disappear only deepened the need for God’s intervention.
Hiding may delay consequences, but it cannot erase the reality of what has been done or the longing in our souls for reconciliation.

Point #2) God’s Pursuit Is Tender, God does not play hide-and-seek to shame us;
He seeks to restore us.

We need to realize that when Adam and Eve hid, God called.
When the prodigal returned, the father ran.
God’s pursuit meets us where we are — often in our mess — and offers a way back through grace.

Point #3) Being found by God often brings conviction, not condemnation.
Conviction is the Spirit’s gentle, persistent light showing us what needs to change. Confession is the honest response that opens the door to forgiveness. Hiding keeps us in isolation; confession brings us into community and into the transforming presence of God.
The path from hiding to healing runs through truth spoken aloud and repentance lived out.

If you are trying to hide today, know that God already knows.
You are not beyond His reach. Start with a single honest prayer:  tell God the truth.
Let the church be a place where light replaces shame.
May we be the safe place where someone can open up and step into the light.

Please bow with me in prayer at this time
Lord, you see us.
You see the corners we avoid,
the stories we tell ourselves,
the ways we try to disappear.
Meet us in our hiding places.
Give us courage to speak the truth,
humility to receive your forgiveness,
and strength to walk in the freedom you offer.
Turn our shame into testimony
and our hiding into honest fellowship.
It is in Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

May we live with the assurance that nothing can separate us from God’s presence.
May we walk in the light of His love, confess what needs confessing, and live in the freedom of a God who pursues, forgives, and restores.

Seeking The Glory of The Father
John 7:1-19

INTRODUCTION: Good morning church. We're starting John 7 today. We're going to talk about seeking the glory of the Father. John's Gospel has been written so that we may believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I think by now we have observed that John is not writing simply to say, I hope you believe in Jesus. He is using these events to invoke true belief in contrast to false belief.

There are many people who think they believe, who think they have a faith in Christ. To help us recognize the situation John has been teaching us what false belief looks like in contrast to true belief. We will see that again in this chapter where John shows us two states of unbelief, two situations of unbelief. At the same time, he is showing us the great faith of Christ and how that is seen in our true faith. John begins in this chapter with telling us that things are going south for the ministry of Jesus in terms of His reception in Jerusalem.

I. Evidence of Unbelief — Self-glorification. We will begin by reading John 7:1-5. “1. After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. 2. Now the Jews' Feast of Booths was at hand. 3. So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. 4. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” 5. For not even his brothers believed in him.”

A. We notice in verse 1 that Jewish leaders have great hostility toward Jesus. We've seen that back in chapter 5 and we will note it again as we move through this chapter. What we are seeing is aggressive hostility, aggressive unbelief against Jesus. He can't even go to Judea now without persecution and an attempt on His life.
B. In verse 2 we are told the Jewish Feast of Booths was at hand, and His brothers told Him He should go to Judea and show the mighty works He was doing. If you do these things, show yourself to the world. We have two backdrops then, aggressive hostility and The Feast of Booths or Feast of Tabernacles.

1. Remember chapter 6 was set in the tone of the Passover feast and that colored our understanding about John’s writing in that chapter. We should now use the Feast of Tabernacles as the lens through which we look at this text. The Feast of Tabernacles is an eight-day feast, and what every family did was build a temporary structure, what we would probably think as a tent.
2. If you had a home that had access to the roof, which is typical, you might erect it on the roof. All of the male Jews would be coming to Jerusalem for this event. This is one of the three events where all the male Jews were to come to Jerusalem. The purpose was to remind them how they lived in the wilderness after being slaves in Egypt. How God had delivered them through the Exodus, through the Red Sea, how they'd come to Mount Sinai, and how they had dwelled in tents for those 40 years until they came into the promised land.
3. It also had an association with the harvest. It was in the fall after all the harvest was done. This was a time of reaping of all that they had planted. It marks the conclusion of the agricultural year, functioning as both a thanksgiving for the fall harvest and a spiritual reminder of the past. A remembrance of how they were nothing, they were in the desert in tents, had been slaves in Egypt, but God brought them to victory, to the promised land.
4. It was also a time of hope when the Messiah was going to come and fulfill the great promises to Israel. There were messianic overtones to the Feast of Tabernacles at this time. They're not just simply dwelling in tents and remembering the past, it was also a time of hope for the future, just as when they were in tents in the wilderness, they were hoping for the promised land, now they are in their tents waiting in hope for the Messiah who will liberate them and usher in the glorious kingdom.

C. That's why the brothers say what they say in verses 3 and 4. You need to go to Judea for the Feast of Tabernacles. Perhaps they thought it was the best time to prove Himself. Everybody's hoping for a Messiah. This is what we're looking forward to as we're in these tents and thinking about the hope of Israel to come. They suggested this now is the time to show Himself. Everybody's thinking about Messiah. Everybody's thinking about the kingdom.

1. His brothers are saying, “If you're the Messiah and you're doing the works of the Messiah, show everybody that you are the Messiah. There’s no better time than this.” It sounds like the brothers have great belief, right? Notice verse 5 though, and how John's couching all this. “For not even his brothers believed in him.”
2. That is staggering. I would expect that Mary would have told those boys about their older brother, yet, His brothers do not believe. They are not saying these things because they believe He truly is the Messiah, that He is the Christ who's come to save. There's a bit of mockery here perhaps. Go to Jerusalem and show yourself. Let's get this started.
3. What we are seeing is a type of unbelief. We are told in verse 1, about one form of unbelief – aggressive. If He goes to Jerusalem, the Jews are trying to kill Him. Here is passive unbelief. The brothers are not trying to get Him killed. They just don't believe anything He has to say. They're not believers. They're not going to follow Him. They're just kind of neutral to Him.
4. If you really are who you say you are, you ought to show it. Signs are a theme in John's Gospel. Show us a sign so that we'll believe. Everybody wants signs.

D. I think it's important for us to recognize that unbelief is not just simply being antagonistic to Christ. Unbelief is also not fully giving your life to Christ. There's no middle ground. If you are not fully believing in Christ, fully devoted to him, fully following him, you are in unbelief. We like to create a neutral middle ground, don’t we? I'm not against Christ, but I'm not dedicated to Him either. I'm just kind of alright with Him.

1. So are the brothers. The brothers are kind of alright with Him too. We have seen in chapter 1, the world does not believe. We see that Jesus has come to His own people, the Jews, and they do not believe. He has talked to His disciples and in chapter 6, many of them do not believe and they're leaving. We're seeing now that even His own family doesn't believe.
2. Most people do not believe, is what John wants us to see. John is showing us that unbelief is not simply being aggressively against Christ. It also is just simply not being for Christ passionately and devoutly.

II. Evidence of Unbelief — The World Does Not Hate Us. Look at the next few verses John 7:6-13 – “6. Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. 7. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. 8. You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.” 9. After saying this, he remained in Galilee. 10. But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private. 11. The Jews were looking for him at the feast, and saying, “Where is he?” 12. And there was much muttering about him among the people. While some said, “He is a good man,” others said, “No, he is leading the people astray.” 13. Yet for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of him.”

A. The first thing we see is how Jesus responds to His brothers who were saying essentially; “you need to put your power on display. Capitalize on the moment. Show yourself.” Reminds us of the temptations that Satan gave to Jesus. What His brothers are doing is trying to get Jesus to prove who He is in a way that they can comprehend. Show them who you are. Bring glory to yourself.
B. Jesus responds, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here.” In due time, Jesus would reveal Himself in Jerusalem, by means of His death and resurrection; but that would have to await for the time appointed by the Father. The true Passover Lamb would be sacrificed on Passover, not at the Feast of Tabernacles.

1. Jesus is saying that my purpose and my time is not for me, but to bring glory to the Father. That is powerful considering He's God. Think about that answer. It's not about when it's good for me. It's not my time because I'm on the Father's timetable. I'm on the Father's schedule. I'm not on my schedule. He's committed to the Father's will.
2. He's not about bringing attention to Himself because that's a symptom of unbelief. What a picture that is for us. Unfortunately, with us it is often about bringing glory to ourselves. Jesus is teaching us with a powerful example.

C. Then He says in verse 6, but your time is always here. Jesus says in verse 7. "The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil."

1. In this picture of unbelief, we first see unbelief is all about me, not about the glory of God. Second, we see if the world doesn't hate us, that also is a picture of unbelief. He tells His brothers you can go to Jerusalem whenever you want. Your time is always there. You can do whatever you feel like, for the world doesn’t hate you.
2. What is being implied there? The world hates Me - because I'm testifying about the ways and the teachings of God and telling the world that its deeds are evil. What's implied? You're not. That's why you can safely go to Jerusalem. I must go on God's schedule not on My own schedule. The world hates me because I'm taking a stand and declaring that its works are evil. That's a powerful declaration to us because the scriptures repeatedly tell us we should expect the world to respond negatively to us.
3. We should not be surprised at that. I'm not sure why we keep being surprised. We do though. We keep being surprised that the world doesn't like what we're teaching, and they don't like the way we're living. They don't like the way we act either. Don't be surprised.
4. He's saying, brothers, the problem is you don't believe in Me. You'll do whatever you want to do. The world doesn't hate you. If you believed in Me, you would take a stand for the Word of God and declare that the world's deeds are evil.

D. We should also realize that this doesn't mean we're seeking persecution. It doesn't mean that we are intentionally inflammatory. It doesn't mean that we are caustic in our words. However, it does mean that we are going to teach the truth of God's word no matter the scenario, no matter the lack of political correctness or niceties that come with that. No, we're not seeking to generate anger or stir up wrath, yet we are going to tell people the way God says it.

1. If we fit in with the world, if we fit in with its teachings, with its thinking, with its words, Jesus says there's something wrong. There is absolutely something wrong.
2. Jesus says “the world hates me”. Why? “Because I take a stand against the world”. That is what we're called to do as well. We are to reflect the glory of God. To show people what is wrong with the world and what the teachings of Christ are. Representing Christ is going to bring about all kinds of hostility. Don't be surprised if the world hates you. They killed our Lord.
3. It's not going to go any better for us. I think, why am I getting such a negative reaction? Am I the only one? I just get mystified. Why is it that nobody likes what I'm saying? Why don't they like to hear messages of morality and virtue from God's word? Because the world hates that. Don't be surprised.
4. However, if we begin to mold our lives, mold our words, and mold our teachings to fit in with the ways of the world, we are exhibiting unbelief. We are showing we do not believe in the power of the word of God and what He has told us to do. Instead, we are going to adjust it.
5. I quickly turn away from speakers that try to “modernize” the word of God, bring it into the 21st century, and make it apply to today’s culture. God's word is timeless. We are to conform our words, our lives, and our thinking to the word of God. God is not outdated. We are out of place, and we need to get in line with His teachings.

E. Jesus is telling them, if you act like the world and speak like the world, no one is going to give you a problem based on your morality or lifestyle or words. However, when we speak like the very oracles of God, as Peter commands us to, and we take on a devotion toward God, try to model our lives on Christ and seek the glory of the Father -- there will be a reaction. People will not like it. We should expect that.

1. I would do a double check on myself if negativity doesn't happen though. We need to check if we're actually modeling our words and our lives to what Christ has taught us. We can say and believe we love Christ, but when we get in with the world with its pressures, we might mask that. Peter illustrated that for us during Jesus’ “trial”. That should not happen. We must always be representing Christ in all that we do.

III. Evidence of True Belief - That leads us to John 7:14-18. “14. About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. 15. The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?” 16. So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. 17. If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. 18. The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.”

A. In the middle of the feast, Jesus goes into the temple and begins teaching. The Jews marveled, and I note a few things here. John uses the term “The Jews” to indicate religious leaders. The phrase “This man …” has the intention to place Jesus on a lower level than the rabbis and priests. Recall in John 3:2 Nicodemus having a higher opinion of Christ, referred to Him as "Rabbi". I also note the bigotry of their question that said in effect, "How could he know anything if he did not learn it from us?"

1. They can't believe how He teaches. He doesn't teach like everybody else. He teaches as if He possesses authority. What the teachers did back then is they would either quote Scripture or quote rabbis and say, rabbis so and so said this, and that's why I have this position. Jesus doesn't have to do that. When He speaks it is the authoritative word of God. Nobody can do that, and they're blown away by that. He doesn't have to cite anything. He's just teaching like He's God. No kidding, that's the whole point. He is God.
2. Jesus then says in verse 16, "My teaching is not mine, but he who sent me." Again, Jesus is turning things back to the Father. By this, Jesus claimed that His own words were the words of God. It was this quality of identifying His teachings as God's teachings that infuriated the leaders.

B. Verse 17 – “If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.” He gives them a test.

1. If you really want to do the will of God, you will recognize that it is God's will, and not my own, that I am proclaiming. You would see My authority coming from God. If you truly had the belief that God wants you to have, if you had true faith, your will in your life would not be your own will, it would be the Father's will. Your care and your concern would be exclusively to do God's will.
2. The source of knowing God's will is the Bible; reason, intelligence, experience, obedience, and love are some of the instruments by which true wisdom can be won from its sacred pages. Even more important than those instruments, is the human will - DESIRING to know the truth. Many accept blindly whatever teaching they received as a child without ever striving to know if it was really God's will that they learned.
3. I want us to see why that's so valuable. Being a disciple of Jesus is not about embracing certain ideas alone. It's not just saying, I shouldn't think this anymore, I should think like that, or I shouldn't believe that way anymore but this way. I need to pray more. Those things are good but that's not the entire scope of being a disciple. Discipleship is about converting our will so that it reflects the will of the father.
4. That is a powerful picture to us because we want life to be all about us. I think the human heart problem is we want our own will. We want to do what we want to do. Since we are empowered to run our own lives, go the direction that we want to go, we will live how we want to live, and we will speak how we want to speak. I want to have certain things, certain results and so I will take certain actions.

C. Jesus says, True believers do not do that. The will of true followers is the will of the Father. In fact, verse 18 amplifies it. “The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory;…” People think it is all about me. My own power, my own will, my own comfort, my own desire, whatever is good for me, whatever works for me.

1. Jesus is saying that you are seeking the wrong thing, and that is a picture of unbelief. See how Jesus describes Himself in verse 18. “…but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.”
2. We are inclined to seek our own glory. I want people to pay attention to me. I want respect. I want honor. I want people to think of me as something.
3. Jesus does not do that; He is directing all glory and all attention to the Father. What brings glory to the Father is the purpose of life. That is what should be our intention, and that is what will create in us the will to do the Father's will.
4. We are sinning because we are not seeking the glory of the Father. I am doing what I want to do. I am looking out for myself. I am looking out for my glory and that sends us down the wrong path. When I am seeking the glory of the Father, concerned about His will, that becomes guardrails in the road of life that I need to keep me on the right track. Discipleship, faith, true saving belief in Jesus Christ, is to seek the glory of the Father alone. Let me put it this way, we should love to see God glorified.
5. If Jesus, who as God deserved every ounce of honor, could have accepted the glory but deflected it to the Father, how much more we as servants should be seeking the glory of God?

Let me end with one thought then.

CONCLUSION:
How can we do this? How can we develop and increase our love for the Father's glory? If you reflect upon it for a minute, how do you develop a love for anything in life? How do you increase your love for anything? Be involved. To develop an appreciation for something, you learn about its details, practice it, and look for what makes it unique. This turns unfamiliar things into favorites.

One suggestion I found gives some steps you can follow to start appreciating something new:

• Learn a little bit about it. Find out how it works or why it was made. It is hard to care about something you do not understand.
• Look for the tiny details. Notice the unique parts.
• Give it time. Your brain needs time to get used to new things.
• Notice the effort. Think about the work that went into it. This helps you value something.
• Keep an open mind. Stop comparing it to things you already know. Let it be its own thing.

That's how we develop a love for the glory of the Father. Spend time gazing upon His goodness. Study how good He is and spend time with others who are doing that. It helps to be in a class with other people. Don’t be involved in isolation.

That's what we're doing. We are coming together and appreciating the glory of the Father and we are studying it. When you expose yourself to it, and allow that exposure to your heart, you'll see transformation. God's word is powerful. You will find a love that seeks the glory of the Father. Not our own glory, not somebody else's glory.

The invitation is to come to Jesus and see the glory of the Father and give Him the honor and the praise that He deserves. You do that with a life of full submission and full of love for His son, Jesus Christ. He sent His son to reveal the will of the Father. No one has ever seen the Father, but His Son was sent so that we could see God.

To appreciate that, and let it soak that in, dwell on Him, and read about Him. It will change your life. When you recognize that you need to have true belief, true faith, then turn away from a life of sin, away from a life of self-glory. Now is a time to live for God and take the steps to receive God's grace. Take that walk with him.

Now you have true belief. Now you can turn away from your sins. Now truly confess that Jesus is the son of God, and He will be the Lord of your life, and you will obey him. Be immersed in water to have your sins washed away.

Enter into that relationship so you can have the great hope of being with the Father in heaven eternally. What a great hope and motivation that we have, to go home and be with our God.

Won't you come now..

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Reference: Brent Kercheville, James Burton Coffman

Responding to The Bread of Life
John 6:60-71

INTRODUCTION: Good morning church. A quick review of where we are in John 6.
We're at a point in John's Gospel where we have been reading of the light coming into the world, light revealing itself to darkness, and darkness not receiving it, not comprehending it, and rejecting it. That has been the thesis of John's Gospel. As we saw in chapter 1, He came to His own and His own did not receive Him. We have seen that illustrated throughout this section in John 6. After the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000, the people seek Him with only selfish motivation, the physical motivation of having their bellies filled.

At this point many disciples are turning away from Jesus, and it is not just the hard-hearted people that are rejecting Him. Even disciples who have been following Jesus are turning away. Why are these disciples turning away? What has happened to cause them to turn from following Jesus? We are going to look at John 6:60-71 and consider why these disciples are leaving and the warning for us.

John 6:60-71. “60. When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61. But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62. Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63. It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64. But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65. And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
66.After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67. So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68. Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69. and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” 70. Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” 71. He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.”[ESV] We will look at this final scene in the chapter that spends time on the bread of life, and we're going to notice two aspects.

I. Reaction of the False Disciples - The first aspect that we're going to notice is the reaction of the false disciples. We have seen in this story how there is a mirror to the wilderness wandering.

A. Jesus made the parallel that - I am the true bread that has come down from heaven. I am the one who gives you true life. Those who were in the wilderness, ate the manna and they died in the wilderness. Another parallel that is just as strong is the reaction of the people. Grumbling. There has been disputing and grumbling.

1. We saw in verse 41, the Jews are grumbling about what Jesus said, that He is the bread of life that has come down from heaven. It happens again in verse 61. Jesus knows within Himself that His disciples are also grumbling. They say in verse 60. “This is a hard saying and who can listen to it?”
2. What they are saying is not… Jesus just said something that I do not comprehend. -- What they're saying is what Jesus just taught is unacceptable. We do not receive what He has just told us. The reason why we know that is because of Jesus' response to it. He says, “Do you take offense at this?”
3. They understood exactly what Jesus is saying. The problem is they don't like what He's saying. Do you take offense at this? Is this a problem for you? Is this too difficult for you to recognize and accept Me as the bread of life?

B. Recognize what Jesus is doing here. Jesus has been, throughout this chapter, underlining what the true call of discipleship looks like. Jesus has repeatedly shown that you are not able to casually seek Him to simply consume the blessings that He has to offer.

1. That's how this all started. These people have come looking for Jesus because they want Him to feed them again. Jesus simply will not cave into that because their motive, their heart is wrong. They are not seeking Him for the right reason.
2. He is showing that being a disciple is not simply just looking for Jesus and enjoying His blessings. True discipleship is not about obeying the part of what Jesus is saying that you like, and then disregarding and ignoring the things He says that you don't like.
3. Jesus has said, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you're not going to inherit eternal life. You're not going to be part of the kingdom of God. You're not going to be raised up on the last day. He has taught that our lives are to be consumed with Christ, that we are to eat, drink, breathe, live Christ, that everything about us is all about Christ. People say that's too much. What you have called for us to do is unacceptable. Jesus is showing that true discipleship is not about obeying the laws we like and disregarding the laws that we don't like.
4. It seems to me that many people today think that is the way Christianity is. Find the church where you like the rules they keep, the preaching is easy, and then go there, and you'll be happy. If you don't like what they say, that's OK too. Just find someplace else where they have what you like. That is not how discipleship works. You don't get to pick and choose how you follow Him. We are seeing in this that discipleship is not just saying you're a follower.

C. These people seem to be disciples. The text even calls them disciples. How long have they been following Jesus? We don't know, but here they are simply different than the rest of the group. They are not unbelievers. They are not of the world. They have been following him. They've been listening to him. They have seen the miracles.

1. Yet, we see that simply saying that we are a follower and belonging to a group of disciples does not make us a disciple. What Jesus says here is going to thin the herd in a hurry as many turn away. Jesus is looking for faith. He's looking for trust, obedience, love, and service. Even in the face of challenging teachings and the difficult concepts that He would give.
2. In the scriptures we sometimes highlight the things that are important to us. We tend to focus on the things that are easy for us. However to talk about things that are difficult and zero in on texts that give us trouble, that point out our sins, that is hard. Both Mark and I find we profit the most when we work on lessons that are more difficult.
3. Also, it's important for us to recognize that Jesus is calling us to have Him as the only answer. He is the bread of life, even when what He says is not popular, is seemingly unacceptable, and is very difficult to obey. There's a lot of things that Jesus tells us to do that are very difficult. Things like forsaking your father and your mother, putting Christ first and leaving all else behind. Very difficult things, and yet this is the call for true disciples.

D. Here is the picture of disciples who do not accept what Jesus is saying. With Jesus response in verse 61, John clues us in with some interesting information. “But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this?” I recall that in John 2:23-25 we read; many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people. He knows they're not true disciples. This is another group where He knows what is in their hearts, and He does not entrust Himself to them.

1. Jesus does not simplify His message. He does not water down His teaching to make sure that these disciples don't leave. The message is the message. The results of that message are what they are. I love how He says it at verse 62, “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?” You think it's hard to consider Jesus as the bread of life, how about Him being the eternal divine God? Watching Him return to the very place where He belongs, and sitting down on the throne that He deserves, and taking up the glory that is rightly due to Him. He makes it more difficult. Rather than simplifying the message, He is trying to break through our spiritual dullness.
2. In verse 63 Jesus explains why His disciples are turning away from Him. He says, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.” Here's the reason why you're turning away from me. You don't understand what it means to be a disciple. The flesh is of no help at all in this matter. It is about the Spirit who gives life. We recall earlier in this chapter that He's expressed this idea twice. In John 6:28. “Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”” What are the works that we need to be doing? Here's the work of God, believe in Him whom He sent, believe in Jesus.
3. Then again in verse 44, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.” Now He gives a similar statement. The Spirit is what gives life. The flesh is of no help at all. He's trying to help them see what they are lacking, and I believe He is referencing Ezekiel 36.

E. If you put a marker in John 6 and turn to Ezekiel 36, I’m going to look at a couple of verses, but I think the whole paragraph is important.

1. The context in Ezekiel 36 is a declaration of the wickedness of the people. You can look back to verse 17, where He speaks of how they've defiled the land with their sins and their wicked ways. God says, now because of your sins, here's what I'm going to do. It is not because you are good people deserving of anything, but for My own sake. You see that in verse 21.
2. Then continue reading at verse 22 and I’m not going to read this entire text because of time constraints.
3. In verse 22-23 God begins with; this isn't about you. This is about God. God's name must be vindicated, and God's holiness must be seen. You've desecrated My name with your sins, and I'm going to act for My namesake and not for you.
4. Continue to read the powerful message Ezekiel gives in verses 24-32.

F. Thinking about what Jesus is doing in John and what is here in Ezekiel, we see the concept of the spirit being put within people. An extremely rare concept in the Old Testament. Note the message, particularly from verses Ezekiel 36:27-28 where God says, I'm going to put a new heart in these people. There's going to be a new heart and a new spirit within them.

1. We also notice in verse 27, that God says He would cause His people to walk in His statues. What God is going to do is put His laws in their hearts and cause them to obey Him. This is going lead to a whole new, different kind of people, not like the people that He's dealing with in Ezekiel.
2. God is going to do something resulting in a new heart in these people, a new spirit will be within them, His laws will be on their hearts, and it will cause them to walk in His ways. Think about that along with what we're reading in John 6. The Scriptures indicate many times that we're not going to find life by simply willing the flesh to “do” the law.
3. Why do we have the idea that if we tried a little harder, we'd be able to obey all the laws of God? The Old Testament has given us a record of how that doesn't work. Part of what the law of Moses does is show we can't keep it perfectly. We should, but we don't. Hebrews 8:7-8. “For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.” What was the fault? “For he finds fault with them…” verse 8. The problem is us. The problem is we don't do it.

a) The problem is we listen to our flesh. Our flesh does not want to do the will of God. Our flesh wants to do the will of the world, the will of Satan, the will of sin. We have a problem. We come to Christ and then say; isn't it wonderful that Christ has saved us? Now perfectly obey the law.
b) That's a great ideal, something to strive for, but it's not going to happen. It didn't happen before, and it's not going to happen now. Something radical must take place that goes beyond just saying, okay, today I'm going to obey the law of God.
c) If that's all that is needed, then why are we failing so much and so often? Because we have a flesh problem. The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Paul in the book of Romans talks about the war that goes on within us and the issues that stand before us. I think this is exactly what it means in verse 63 when it says, it is the Spirit who gives life, the flesh is no help at all. It's recognizing where we stand. We need God's intervention.

G. Jesus is talking to Jews who are coming from the law of Moses who think that they are good, righteous, moral people. They're doing A-OK, and they don't need a Savior. But they are not ok. They, and we, need God to intervene. What Jesus is teaching here is valuable. He says it is the Spirit who gives life. Think about what Ezekiel said. What is going to happen? I'm going to have a new group of people in this new covenant.

1. These people are going to have a heart that is responsive to the laws of God. They are going to listen to what God has to say so that God will be able to etch His laws onto their heart. These people in the old covenant haven't done that. They have not been listening to God. They have not been responsive to God and their sins are filled to the uttermost.
2. Imagine if you were there in the days of the law of Moses and under that covenant, how is that going to happen? What is God going to do that's going to radically change everything so that we will obey? So that we will have His law on our hearts and we will follow Him? Verse 63 gives the answer. “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” That is a powerful statement.
3. Jesus says, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” my words are spirit and life. Christ was going to come and teach the ways of God and exemplify the laws and ways of God and act in such a way so that we will be compelled to want to follow Him. It's the essence of the cross.

H. Every week we look at the cross and think about what He's done. We remember, and that is such a massive motivation. It's no longer we'll do the law because God said to do the law. That's pretty hard. Just do it. Okay, but I fail constantly.

1. What is going to be the transforming act that would cause me to want to obey God's law? Christ is. His love, His death, His resurrection, and in particular what Jesus is highlighting here, His words. Ezekiel says God's going to put His spirit in His people. How's God going to put His spirit in His people? Magically? Mystically? No. Jesus gives a clear answer. By His teachings. My words are spirit and life.
2. Never underestimate the power of the words of Christ. We need to let the words of Jesus rest in our heart. Meditate on them, focus on them, so that we will desire Him and want to consume our lives with Him. This is the means that God has given. We know that when you tell people - what you need to do is read your Bible more, that usually is turn-off. But it is the answer to; What do I need to have deeper faith? What do I need to do to draw closer to God? What do I need to do to feel like I'm in His graces? What do I need to do to experience His mercy? What do I need to do to be part of His grace? What do I need to do to experience the Kingdom of God? – His words are spirit and life.
3. People don't often like that answer. We want magic pills or a list of, do this, say this, act like that, and it will all be easier. Throughout this chapter, God is underlining over and over again the way that you belong to Christ, have a relationship with the Father and participate in His Kingdom, is to consume the bread of life and that life comes through His Word. That is how God writes on your hearts.

I. The more you learn about Him and grasp His love, listening to what He has to say, the more you will be compelled to follow Him. It will no longer be simply; there's the rules I've got to keep the rules. Rule keeping does not work with human beings very well.

1. What's going to change? God is going to display His immense love through His Son on the cross and reveal the amazing message of grace to radically change people's lives to desire Him and follow Him. If we do not have this love to consume him, then it shows that we are merely practicing external righteousness which does not give life. Jesus and His words alone give life.
2. False disciples of Jesus do not cling to God’s word. They do not recognize how wonderful it is to consume Christ. If we do not respond to the bread of life by desiring him, consuming him, and having His law in our heart, then we are not true disciples but false. The words of Jesus are the vehicle of the transformation of the heart from stone to flesh that gives us life and spirit.
3. If we're not desiring God, not consuming Him, and if our life is not wrapped up in Him, desiring His laws, desiring to learn about Him and consume all that He has to say, it is an enormous red flag for discipleship. We may think and say we are a follower of Him but simply practicing external righteousness, without the heart that seeks Him and desires Him and loves Him - will not bring us life. We cannot turn what Christ has done for us into simply saying, if I do X, Y, and Z, I'm A-OK.

J. That's what this is about and Jesus highlights this in John 6:65-64.

1. First reading verse 65. “And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”” He said that in verse 44. It's not going to be possible for us to come to Christ unless the Father does something. Then shows how are we drawn by the Father to Christ. They will all be taught by God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.
2. We need God to give us a solution, and that is Christ, in Christ's sacrifice, and in His words. It is the Word of God that does it. Look at verse 64. “But there are some of you who do not believe…” John then explains; “For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.” Judas. What made Judas different from the rest of the apostles? Why talk about him right now? We are talking about false and true disciples.
3. Judas heard the teachings of Christ, just like the other 11. He saw the miracles of Christ. How could Judas do what he did? He was right there.
4. He did not allow himself to be taught by God. There is a way to hear the message of Christ, hear His words, and yet it will do absolutely nothing to our lives. It can just be words on a page, and it doesn't penetrate the heart. Think of the parable of the different types of soil.
5. The Word of God is seed that's being cast everywhere, and it in those who are the good soil where it begins to sprout and grow and bring in the fruit. Judas listened, He's seen, but he hasn't been taught by God. He hasn't allowed it to become transformative to him, and the point in verse 66 is the same. “After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.”

K. A grave warning to us. Is consuming Christ too much to ask? The disciples that leave say; Who can listen to this? It's too difficult. Who can receive what He's just taught? The answer is… many cannot. This is a serious challenge. What they wanted, Jesus was not going to give. They wanted things to be easy. They wanted the physical. What Jesus is willing to offer, they won't receive. He wants to give them life, and they will not take it.

II. Reaction of True Disciples – The second aspect we look at is the reaction of the true disciples. Verse 67, “So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?”” Imagine watching this throng of disciples all just quitting and walking away. I wonder what the twelve felt like as they watched this enormous crowd just dwindle down.

A. Jesus is asking, has My call for discipleship been too difficult for you too? I love Peter's response. Verse 68. “… “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.””
B. Peter's answer. Where are we going to find eternal life but in you? Who are we going to turn to but you? It doesn't matter how challenging Jesus is. There's nowhere else to go. What a great statement that Peter makes. He understands exactly where he stands. I know they're all leaving Lord, but you have the words of life. Where else are we going to go? Your words give life transformation. Your words give us hope. Where are we going to turn? – We must believe that truth. There is nowhere else to go but Christ.

CONCLUSION:
We are looking at the distinction between the false disciples and the true disciples. What can we do to see Jesus as the bread of life and let God write His law on our hearts?
First - we need more prayer. Pray to God for a softening of your heart. Prayer is so important to the Christian walk. Pray to God the words a father declared to Jesus. “I believe; help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24). Tell God your weaknesses and your struggles.

Second - what we've seen throughout this chapter is read the Word of God, but don't just read the Word of God. Read it with purpose. Read it with great intention. Take just a few verses, read them and think about them. Meditate on them. Pray about them. I suggest that is important to letting the Word of God into your heart. It is so easy to treat the Bible like a novel. Read it as fast as you can. Don't do that. Slow down.

Pick a Gospel and read through it slowly. Read a few verses and think about what is being said there. Don't just read over it, let it soak in. What does that mean? What is happening here? What is God trying to teach you? These are the things that God has given us for greater faith. Give yourself more time in prayer and give yourself more time in God's Word. You will deepen your faith.

His words bring us to faith, and His words help us grow. May we see that God has given us everything we need for life and godliness through a knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.

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Reference Sermon: Brent Kercheville

Back to The Garden — Forever
Revelation. 22:1-5

What do you think about when you think about heaven?
I read the story of a little girl who was outside with her dad one night. The only lights were the dazzling stars in the sky. And she turned to her dad and said “If this the wrong side of heaven, and it’s so beautiful, what do you think the right side of heaven will look like?”

Now the book of Revelation tries to paint a picture of the beauty of heaven, it speaks of streets paved with gold, and gates and walls of precious stones and jewels. And the point of all that imagery was to help us understand that – heaven is going to be one of the coolest places you’ve ever seen.

Today, numerous songs we sing declare that same excitement: One of those songs is “I'm satisfied with
just a cottage below, a little silver and a little gold.
But in that city where the ransomed will shine.
I want a gold one that's silver lined.
(Chorus) I've got a mansion just over the hilltop,
in that bright land where we'll never grow old.
And some day yonder we will never more wander,
but walk on streets that are purest gold.”

When we hear songs like that - there’s something about the music and the words of those songs that declares:
HEAVEN IS A PLACE TO GET EXCITED ABOUT.

Revelation 22:1–5 reveals the end of the story — and it looks strikingly like the beginning. God restores what was lost in Eden, but greater, eternal, and unbreakable. Humanity is healed, creation is renewed, and God dwells with His people face to face.

1 “The river of the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.”
     • The river is a symbol of God’s life-giving presence
     • In Eden, a river watered the garden; here, it flows from God Himself
     • No barriers, no distance, no drought — pure, unfiltered life

2 “On each side of the river stood the tree of life… yielding fruit every month.”
     • Humanity was banished from the tree in Genesis
     • Now the tree is accessible, abundant, and eternal
     • Its fruit never runs out; its leaves bring healing to the nations
God doesn’t just forgive — He heals. He doesn’t just restore — He multiplies.

3 “No longer will there be any curse.”
     • The curse of Genesis 3 is fully reversed
     • No more decay, division, disease, or death
     • The world is finally as God intended
We live in a world still groaning, but Revelation promises the curse has an expiration date.

4 “They will see His face.”
     • The deepest longing of the human soul is fulfilled
     • No veil, no temple, no separation
     • God’s name on our foreheads means identity, belonging, and ownership
Heaven is not about a place — it’s about a Person.

5 “And they will reign for ever and ever.”
     • Humanity’s original calling (Genesis 1:26–28) is restored
     • Not passive existence, but active partnership with God
     • Eternal purpose, eternal joy, eternal authority
God doesn’t just save us from something — He saves us for something.

Revelation 22:1–5 is God’s final promise:
The story ends in life, not loss.
In healing, not hurt.
In glory, not grief.
Eden is not just restored — it is perfected.

A little 6-yr-old girl came home from VBS one day and excitedly said: “Mom, God’s so neat, and heaven’s so great. Could me and Gloria go there for a sleep-over on Saturday?”
That little girl understood what heaven’s all about – GOD’S NEAT… AND HEAVEN’S GONNA BE GREAT.
Now there are some people who don’t believe that. They say they believe Heaven will be boring, monotonous, and dreary.

A popular Irish Playwright named George Bernard Shaw, observed, “Heaven, as conventionally conceived, is a place so inane, so dull, so useless, so miserable, that nobody has ever ventured to describe a whole day in heaven…”

Revelation 19:1-7 tells us “After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, "Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true and just” …
And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne, saying, "Amen. Hallelujah!" And from the throne came a voice saying, "Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, small and great." Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready…”

People pay good money to go to concerts where things like that happen. Concerts where people are just jumping up and down with excitement.
I mean - that kind of thing is not boring… UNLESS you don’t like the music, or unless you don’t like who’s onstage.
There are many in the world today who aren’t going to like the music in heaven – because it’s all about Jesus and worshipping God. And they won’t like who’s onstage - because that would be Jesus. So, of course they’re going to be bored.
They’ll be bored out of their minds.

But, there’s going to be a lot more than singing & rejoicing going on in heaven.
Revelation 22:5 says that “(We) will see his face, and his name will be on (our) foreheads. And night will be no more. (We) will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be (our) light, and (we) will reign forever and ever.”
We’re going to REIGN, and that means we’re going to be doing SOMETHING. I don’t know what exactly WHAT we’ll be doing, but I’m pretty sure it’s gonna be enjoyable.

Back in the book of Genesis, we read that “The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." Genesis 2:15-16

WHAT’S THAT SAYING?
It’s saying that God gave Adam and Eve work to do.
And God gave them the Garden of Eden … which was THEIR place to look after and to take care of.
In that Garden, they REIGNED as King and Queen.
Now, is that what’s going to happen in Heaven?
I don’t know. But I DO know this:
when God gave Adam and Eve a place to reign… it wasn’t boring. It was a time of joy and pleasure.
And when Jesus returns God promises we will REIGN, and that will be a time of joy and pleasure.

ILLUS: Randy Alcorn — wrote a book called Heaven … and he wrote “Our belief that Heaven will be boring betrays a heresy — that God is boring.
There’s no greater nonsense.
Our desire for pleasure and the experience of joy come directly from God’s hand. He made our taste buds, our adrenaline, our nerve endings, etc. which convey pleasure to our brains.
Likewise, our imaginations and our capacity for joy and excitement were made by the very God we accuse of being boring. Are we so arrogant as to imagine that human beings came up with the idea of having FUN?”
OF COURSE NOT!

There’s an old hymn that says “Heaven is WONDERFUL place, filled with glory and grace. I’m gonna see my Savior’s face, cause heaven is a wonderful place.”
And heaven’s going to be a wonderful place… partly because of what’s NOT going to be there; and partly because of what WILL be there!
So, what’s NOT going to be there in heaven?

Well, Revelation gives us a list.
Revelations 21:3-5
“I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
He will wipe every tear from their eyes.
There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!"

We can keep a list of things he know WON’T be in heaven.
In heaven “there’ll be no more cancer. No more divorce.
No more rejection or loneliness. No more depression.
No more wheelchairs or pacemakers.
No more radiation or chemotherapy.
No more crosses along the side of the road.
No more child abuse. No more rape.
No more funeral homes or orphanages or nursing homes.
No more treatment centers. No more Pink slips or foreclosures. No more quarantines or face masks or social distancing.”
That’s a lot of stuff that’s NOT going to be going on in heaven.

Now, there’s going to be ONE thing in heaven that will make it all worthwhile.
BACK TO VERSES 3-5 of our TEXT
“The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.
There will be no more night.
They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light.”

What’s going to be there in heaven? GOD!
The one thing that will make everything worthwhile in heaven will be God. He will be there waiting for us, and He’ll make EVERYTHING new!
Jesus said “Let not your hearts be troubled.” But why would we be troubled? Because this is a hard world… and it hurts to live here. But then Jesus goes on to say:
“Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms.
If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” John 14:1-3

What Jesus was saying was this: I’m coming back for you.
And when I come, I’ll have a place prepared JUST FOR YOU.
One of the main themes of Revelation is this: God’s coming back. And He’s coming back for you.
And when He comes back you’re going to have everything you didn’t have on earth.

CLOSE: The story is told of the days when doctors visited their patients at home. It was obvious the patient didn’t have long to live and as the doctor was about to leave, the sick man called out to him: "Doctor, I am afraid to die.
Can you tell me what lies on the other side?"
The doctor was very quiet for a moment and then said, "I don’t know."
"You do not know?
You are a Christian and you do not know what is on the other side?"
The doctor’s hand was on the doorknob… and on the other side of the door there was the sound of scratching and whining. It was the doctor’s dog which he had brought with him. And as he opened the door the dog leaped into the room and jumped up on him…
and eagerly licked his face.
Suddenly the Doctor realized how to answer the man’s question.
"Did you see what my dog just did?
He’s never been in this room before.
He didn’t know what was inside. He just knew that I was here … and that was enough. When the door opened, he pushed through – excited that I was here.
Now, I know very little of what is on the other side of death, but I do know one thing: I know my Master is there, and that is enough. And when the door opens, I’m going in.”

Patience and Kindness

John 8:1-20

Good morning, I hope everybody's enjoying the weather. It's starting to get hot, so I should take advantage of it. It's been a cold June, and it's been annoying.

Over the spring, I had the opportunity to work with 6th graders in a math class at Eisenhower Intermediate School near Toledo, Ohio. This was one of my placements. During that time, I was told to make a lesson and instruct it with these students. I grouped them up and had them go through various activities. At one of these activities, there was a group of 6. They were all working on a problem.

The problem required them to get a tape measure, write down all their different heights, and find the answer to the question doing that. There was this one group of about 6 students, who was getting really heated. They were arguing, going back and forth about how to get the answer.

I tried not to step in unless it seemed like I really needed or they asked me a question. The arguments go on for a few minutes.

They ask Professor, Mr. Allen, will you come and help us out? I come over, and there's are two different camps that have different ideas on how to solve this question. I come over, and I see all of them are wrong. Not one of them is on the right track. They all are missing the mark and failing to answer the question right. I helped them out. That's just a good point that we are not just like those children.

We, as people, often are wrong. We will bicker and argue, do this and that, and we will often still not be close to the mark. Today, this sermon will be going over John 8:1-20 specifically.

If you'd like to turn to there, that is where the bulk of this sermon will be. To start, I will read verses 1-4.

Now, early in the morning, He came again into the temple, and all the people came to him. And He sat down and taught them. Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to him, Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act.

The first thing that came to my mind when I was reading this passage was when Jesus was with the woman at the well in John 4. This was the Samaritan woman He had shown grace when He was talking to her, and it was very out of place because she was a Samaritan. He's not supposed to be seen with her, yet He was with her.

In verses John 4:16-18, it says, I have no husband, she replied. Jesus said to her, you are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband.

What you have just said is quite true. This shows that Jesus, before this point in the Bible, had already dealt with adulterous women, women who were with men that were not their husband. He had already shown how He was going to act with these kind of women before. When He was with the woman at the well, He showed patience, kindness. He was not quick to condemn her. He merely pointed out her sin. And here in John 8, a group of men had brought Him a woman in a similar position.

Moving on, verses 5-6 say, Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. What do you say? This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stopped, stooped down, and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.

From what I can find, this is likely referencing Deuteronomy 17:1-7. What the Jews are telling Him is Moses' law.

That says, and it is told you, and you if hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently, and if it is indeed true and certain that such an abomination has been committed in Israel, then you shall bring out your gates that man or woman who has committed that wicked thing and shall stone to death that man or woman with stones. Whoever is deserving of death shall be put to death on the testimony of two or three witnesses. He shall not be put to death on the testimony of one. The hands of the witness shall be the first against him to put him to death, and afterwards the hands of all the people. So you shall put away the evil among you.

This shows what the old law commanded. You have more than one witness to put to death people that do these types of sins, adultery, idol worship, the old law was ruthless and clear. Destroy the sin from your society. That is why God flooded the world, or just why He decimated Sodom and Gomorrah for their transgressions, so should His people destroy the sin.

Let's move on. Verses 8 through 9 say, so when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first. And again, He stooped down and wrote on the ground, Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest, even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

None of them threw stones. Why? In Deuteronomy it's very clear we should be stoning these people. They should be killed for their transgressions.

Let's quickly look at Matthew 7:1-5. When all the time there is a plank in your own, you hypocrite. First take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from others.

This is not too dissimilar to those children who were bickering and arguing and calling each other names because they thought they were right and their other classmates were wrong. Are we, like those little kids when we were pointing our fingers at our fellow man. How horrible of you to commit this sin. How awful of you to do this thing. That same finger could be turned around and pointed at you.

In Romans 3:23 it says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That is all. It is very clear. All of us have fallen short. Imagine one day the Cleveland Browns called you and asked you if you wanted to be their new GM. Or a restaurant asked you to come in and be their chef. I don't know about you, but I have no idea how to run either of those things. I'm not qualified to do that. How am I qualified to do those things when I have no idea? None of us have any idea on how to go through life in a pure and perfect way by ourselves.

Let’s move on again, to verses 10-11, when Jesus had raised himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you? She said, no one, Lord. And Jesus said to her, neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.

Jesus did the same thing here that He did with the woman at the well.

He didn't deny her sin. He didn't say this didn't happen or you're not wrong for doing this thing, but He showed patience. He showed understanding. He showed that though you may have done this, there is hope for you yet. There is salvation. He asked her to go and commit no more sin.

I want to focus on something she said too. No one, Lord. She is acknowledging who He is. That is something many of the Jews that were coming to Him would not do as we will see later in this very chapter. They question Him and who He is, but this sinner, this adulterer, is the one that is clearly showing that she believes who He says He is. She believes what He says.

Let's look at John 3:16-21 real quick. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

This is the verdict. Light has come into the world, but people love darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

Jesus did not come down here to stone each and every one of us for the sins we have committed. He has not come down here to set us afire and call in a great flood to wipe us all away. He has come here to save us. He has come here to wash away our sins in His blood. He has come here to take our punishment for us so that we might be saved and offer us the gift of life. When Jesus came to the earth, that old law, that old creed that stood, that told people to stone the adulterers was done.

All have sinned. If people don't come to him, they will be condemned regardless. Why would you want to rush it? Why do it now when you could give those people time and they could be saved?

Moving on to verse 12. Then Jesus spoke to them again saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness but have the light of life.

Verse 13 says, the Pharisees therefore said to him, you bear witness of yourself. Your witness is not true. He bears witness of himself. He's the one saying these things. He's the one saying I am the son of God. How can we just believe your word? How can we take your word for truth and fact? How can we trust you? Back in the Deuteronomy, it said do not convict someone with one witness. You need two or three. Jesus is not just one person. At this point in His life, He had already committed dozens of miracles. He had already turned water into wine. He had already healed many individuals.

Let's look to see how Jesus answered in verses 14 through 18. Jesus answered and said to them, Even if I bear witness of myself, my witness is true. For I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from and where I am going. You judged according to the flesh. I judged no one. And yet if I do judge, my judgment is true. For I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent me. It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true. I am one who bears witness of myself and the Father who sent me bears witness to me. It's not just His word. It's not just His eyes that bear witness. As He says Himself, His Father bears witness as well.

Let's look back at verse 15. You judged according to the flesh. You judged based off your own earthly beliefs, based off your own earthly impulses. You were letting the flesh guide you, not the spirit, not the soul. Jesus said, I judged no one. I did not judge by the flesh, yet if I do judge, my judgment is true. Because He is with the Father. Jesus has made it clear at this point that He is the Son of God.

Moving on again, in verses 19 it says, then they said to Him, Where is your Father? Jesus answered you know neither me nor my Father. If you have known me, you have known my Father also. I wonder what Jesus felt at this moment. Do you think He was annoyed or confused by the question? Was He just tired of their constant redundancy because they keep asking the same thing over and over again. This isn't the first time He's been questioned like this. I'm quite sure this isn't the first time that these very people have asked this question.

Was it not made clear that He was the Son of God before this? When He had turned water into wine, when He had healed the lame? Were the miracles He performed in the Father's name not enough to satisfy?

Whenever I read passages like this one, I just think of all the Christmas movies I watched as a kid with Santa Claus. Where people would be like, Oh Santa, why don't you just show yourself to the world? Then everyone would believe in you. Then all their problems would be fixed. They would always respond with seeing is not the same as believing.

Many of these people that questioned Jesus in that time got to see these miracles, see His works firsthand. They bore witness to His greatness and who He was, yet they did not believe. They were the ones to cast the stones. I guess that just tells me that I must be diligent. Because if people who were there in that day could not overcome their own flesh, could not let go of their own earthly desires for the Lord that was standing right in front of them, how easy of a time will I as a sinner with just the Bible in front of me have as well? How diligent do I need to be to properly follow the Lord my God? Even the apostles struggled at points. Very much so.

Moving back to verse 20 says, These words Jesus spoke in the treasury as He taught in the temple, and no one laid hands on him, for His hour had not come yet.

I want to look at Joshua 1:9 real quick. It says, Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged. For your Lord, your God, will be with you wherever you go. Jesus and the Lord will be with you as you go through life. Jesus knew He was safe here. He could keep on preaching, keep on saying His word, keep on professing the Lord's commands. He knew He'd be safe because He knew that the Lord was with Him and that it was not His time.

He knew He still had time on this earth. Do not be afraid as we go through life. Do not be afraid as we go through trials and tribulations.

We can be assured that God is with us. We may not be capable of making the right decision.

We may get into arguments. We may point each other and say, We are right. We have the answer. We have the solution. Then God will come around like I did to those sixth graders and say, No, you're both wrong. But with God in our ear, with God on our side, we have a guide and an advisor greater than any other. We will be wrong. If we listen to His word, to His testament, to His guidance, we can be confident that He will point us in the right direction. We can be confident that He will witness it all. When the time comes for us to stand before judgment, Jesus will stand with us proclaiming that we proclaimed His name.

I ask, If you have not come to the Lord in baptism, why wait any longer? He has already given you so much time, more than many others. Thankfully, this is not the day where if they found you guilty of a certain sin, they would stone you. You have more time than that. You have more time to come to him.

If you have not been baptized for the remission of your sins, I ask that you do not wait, that you come to the Lord. If you wait too long, it may be too late.