John 8:42-47

John 8:42-47 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”

In Christ's first appearance during the Feast of Tabernacles in the temple courts in chapter seven, we read his continued references to his relationship with Father God, such as: My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me. I am not here on my own, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, but I know him because I am from him and he sent me. I am with you for only a short time, and then I go to the one who sent me (John 7:16, 28-29, & 33) We have watched Jesus lay the foundation that the Holy Spirit would use following his death and resurrection to remind people of what He said and the reliability of his words. In today's passage, his picks up this same theme that his message is not his own: I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me. Yet He goes much farther with these strong words of admonition and warning: The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God--words that that must have echoed through the temple courts that day with the power and authority of the voice of God.

The Jewish elite and religious leaders hated Jesus and wanted him dead, seeing him as a threat to their position. Jesus angered even the common people by this point, and they called him demon-possessed just moments before when they heard him speak angrily against them as He questioned their position as children of their spiritual father Abraham, emphatically saying their spirit was not God's spirit. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. (John 8:23-44) Since Satan is a thief, a murderer, and the father of lies, if he is their father, then his words are their words, their language. The more they followed after him, the more they became like him: hurting not healing, lying instead of speaking truth, destroying rather than building up, condemning not vindicating and redeeming. The devil seeks to shame, defeat, and weigh people down with guilt over their past for their own sins and the sins done against them. Jesus came not to condemn and to destroy but to save the world. Jesus reveals God's love even for his enemies, those who despised and rejected him: 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. (John 3:16-17

God is speaking today: as we read the Word, pray, seek godly counsel, and sit in his presence, worshipping him. Jesus said, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. (John 10:27) Two thousand years separate us from Jesus' physical presence on Earth; yet through the indwelling Spirit of God, we have the Comforter within, writing God's will upon our hearts and putting his thoughts in our minds as we listen to his still small voice--just as strong and powerful as it was two thousand years ago in the Temple Courts of Jerusalem. God speaks to us through the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit any time we stop to listen. The reality of a Christian life is that God is alive in us: our lives are his, hid with Christ in God who comforts us, covers us. He is the balm of Gilead: healer of broken bodies, wounded souls, and bruised spirits. He makes life worth living. His voice in us is not one of criticism or destruction: does not criticize, destroy, point out faults or set out to hurt people. Jesus did not condemn--He laid down his life as a ransom for ALL, saying, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. (Luke 23:34) God's spirit resonates love, encouragement, freedom, victory, redemption, transformation, hope, power, joy, peace, lovingkindness, long suffering, patience, goodness, mercy, and much more. He says, "Son, daughter: I am with you; I will never, never leave you." Such words comfort our hearts in a barren, hostile, and alien land: a land of sickness and death. HE gives us, his ambassadors, the bread of life and living water, to feed us and to meet the needs of others on the journey. This is GOOD NEWS: CHRIST HAS COME, PEACE ON EARTH, GOOD WILL TOWARD MEN!