Posts with important questions and answers

Where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you? John 8:10

Jesus asked these questions to a woman caught in adultery, "in the very act", the account says. Imagine being this woman for just a moment. It doesn't say she was a prostitute, so I don't believe she was. We don't know if she was married, like the woman in Proverbs 7, or having an affair with a married man.

We can infer, though, that this religious posse burst in on her and her partner, and dragged her, not them, out into the street, and threw her at Jesus' feet. Imagine her shame, her humiliation and the betrayal. Her lover must have been in on it to have escaped without comment. Her "lover" was willing to risk her death by stoning to prove a point with this Galilean rabbi.

She was one hundred percent guilty as charged and she knew it. She also had to know that nobody had been stoned to death in Israel for adultery in a long time. Which way would this Jesus go? Would He call for her stoning? Would He come to her defense?

Several powerful lessons emerge from this simple story-
1. Sin is sin in God's eyes. He doesn't rank sin by severity the way we tend to do. All sin [our sin] deserves death, not just the ones "others" commit.
2. It is the ultimate hypocrisy to accuse others before God. It will backfire. The New Testament gives careful instructions on how to deal with sin in the body of Christ- with grief and humility, not self-righteous finger-pointing.
3. Jesus accepts everyone who comes to Him for mercy, regardless of the circumstances.
4. The most important words in the passage – Go and sin NO MORE. In our search for grace and mercy, we often forget our responsibility to repent, to change. By changing, we demonstrate that we grasp the seriousness of our offense, the reverence that a holy and just God deserves, and the depth of grace that a second chance brings.
5. When we have no other recourse, and find ourselves at the feet of Jesus, the only one who has the RIGHT to condemn us, DOESN'T. He delivers us from the punishment of sin, and from the baggage of sin, the memories, the shame, the crushed spirit.

If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed, as free as free can be.

Are you angry with Me because I made a man completely well on the Sabbath? John 7:23

The religious leaders- the ones Jesus asked this question- weren't angry about the healing. They were angry about breaking the Sabbath. Observance of the Sabbath was their yardstick for holiness. If you didn't observe the Sabbath (the way they prescribed) then you couldn't be in God's righteous favor.

The religious leadership was perfectly in tune with one another. They held the same opinions, and acted as one. Except for Nicodemus and Simon, none of them are named. They were interchangeable.

Jesus was in tune with God. He was unique in His culture. People were irresistibly drawn to Him.

Do we ever take the role of the Pharisees and discount the good that a person or a group or a ministry is doing because they aren't doing it the "right" way?

Do we ever take the role of Jesus and do the right thing, knowing we'll be misunderstood?

Does this offend you? John 6:61

Jesus had just finished teaching a large group of followers that He was the bread of life. He wanted them to understand that everlasting life comes from accepting His upcoming sacrificial death. This troubled most of the multitude. A humiliated, suffering Messiah didn't fit their understanding of God, and they began to murmur. Eventually they walked away.

At some point in our walk, we will come up against words Jesus spoke that are a little jarring. Or maybe something God said in the Old Testament will cause us to stop and wonder. God wants to reveal Himself to us. As He does show more of Himself to us, we will begin to see He cannot, will not, be confined to the safe boundaries we like to put Him in.

Jesus goes on to tell this crowd, What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? John 6:62

To paraphrase, "If you can't handle this, there's no way you're ready for the big stuff."

God is not going to change to accommodate our notions of who He is or who He should be. So what do you do when you hit one of these things that rocks your theology? First, make sure it is a correctly interpreted Biblical truth and not just someone else's opinion. Check cross-references. Scripture NEVER contradicts itself, although our interpretations can't sometimes be off. Ask mature people you trust.

Then once you're sure you have understood what God said, you have a choice to make. Accept that you need to change your ideas and acknowledge who He is, or walk away.

After the crowds trickled away, Jesus asked the 12 if they were leaving too. Peter, without hesitation, replied, "Where else can we go? YOU have the words of eternal life."

They were glad they stayed around. You will be too.

Where shall we buy bread that these may eat?  John 6:5

Jesus asked Philip as they surveyed the multitude of 5000+. In some of the other gospel accounts, Jesus went on to say, "You feed them." Philip quickly did the math and began to offer concrete reasons (excuses) why he couldn't. And he missed an opportunity. Now Jesus took advantage of the situation and performed a tremendous miracle- the only one mentioned in all four gospels- but Philip traded a chance to feed for handing out bread and fish. Sure Philip got to be part of wondrous event, but it could have been more.

So many times, we see "food" used as a metaphor for God's word. No doubt, people need it as desperately as they need their daily food. We can see people in all sorts of difficult life situations. We pray and we ask God what we can do, how can we help when there are so many… 

The answer is "you feed them". You may not be a scholar, a theologian, or even a teacher, but if Jesus Christ has ever done anything for you, you have food to share. You can bring a miracle into someone else's life.

I blog because I want people to know the things I know about Jesus, to understand how great, how deep His love is, to see how wonderful His word is… I want to share what I've been fed with. You do them same.

Keep reading and keep feeding.