With faith, future

Bible: John 8:47~56 JAN 15 2017 Sunday afternoon service

Title: With faith, future

47He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God."

48The Jews answered him, "Aren't we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?"

49"I am not possessed by a demon," said Jesus, "but I honor my Father and you dishonor me.

50I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge.

51I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death."

52At this the Jews exclaimed, "Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that if anyone keeps your word, he will never taste death.

53Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?"

54Jesus replied, "If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me.

55Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and keep his word.

56Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad."

Verse 47 starts like this. He who belongs to God~~Deos Ec ho belongs to God. When saying belongs to God, who belongs was used as Ec. You have heard about this word Ec. Church is called Eclesia. And Ec means from. Lesia means call. So it means, church was called from the world.

who belongs was used as Ec. The ‘belongs’ mean ‘start’, ‘origin’ and used as from. So who belongs to God means, who came from God, started from God.

The start of you is God. You are who came from God. The birth of believer is God. God gave us life and made us live here, and when living here we perform God’s special meaning and when the time comes, we go back to God.

Today, verse 47 says the characteristic of people who came from God is ‘hears what God says’. It means listening to God’s voice. It means someone who keeps, loves the word God revealed through Jesus. To keep, love, act and follow the word of God that was written by the touch of spirit. It’s an amazing incident.

Penguins live in South pole. Penguins bring forth young, parents alternately catch food to raise and feed them.

But there are no food in the close area. Because when penguins bring forth young, the ice of close sea freezes and can’t go in to the sea. So penguin goes to more far sea. And to return to the road, it takes from few days to 2 month.

Penguins can’t eat anything for 2 month maximum. And when penguins come back, thousands of penguins wail. Amazingly, all penguins find their youngs remembering the voice.

Maybe we think penguins are just penguins but the mothers of penguins know exactly. The voice of penguin also look alike but amazingly, the mothers listen to the voice.

Thousands of young penguins exist, but they all recognize the voice of their child. Yes. The young penguins also realize their mother among those penguins.

On the border of Africa Kenya and Tanzania, millions of gnu lives there. The government of Kenya and Tanzania designated that area as Manai Mara national Park and protect the gnus. Africa season is divided in to dry and rainy season.

When it’s rainy season, grass grows a lot. Flock of gnus eat thegrass and bring forth young at once. It gnus are more then million, the youngs are almost five hundred thousand.

When the big amount of young come out, it might be whirl. Almost 1.5 million to 2 million gnus move at once and how many accidents would there be?

Some might be lost, some might get attacked by lion or hyena, sometimes because of the crowed line, the youngs might be lost.

But amazingly, the gnus get attacked, sometimes ranks break but there are barely none of the gnus that lose mother gnus. Some gnus get out of lines because they are attacked, but the mothers listens to the young and bring them.

So surprising. We think that Flock of gnus amount of 1.5 million to 2 million, is too many and it would be hard to find their youngs.

They don’t have any broadcasting facility like human society, nor center for the lost children, neither 911 police, but amazingly mother hears to the crying of the young. Hallelujah.

Verse 47 says ““He who belongs to God hears what God says.”” The characteristic of God’speople is knowing the voice of God. Knowing the sound of God. When God says, we answer as amen. When the word comes into hearing, we decide to live that way.

Even when our condition is not good, and be take the wrong side, what am I doing, this is not me, I shouldn’t live like this, I am the child of God, I am the people of God.

They I should go back, Father, forgive me. This is not it. I am discriminative person of God and go back.

This is the characteristic of God’s child. If you think of it, you would know how thankful and amazing it is. Hallelujah.

Let us say hi to each other and encourage. ““believers fall down 7 times and wake up 8 times. The author of psalms called believes as righteous person. The righteous person, the people of heaven, the peopleof God falls 7 times and wake up 8 times. This is the characteristics of God’s people.

This is the nature of believer. This is unchangeable truth. What is the blessing of God’s people? This. When believer listens to God’s voice, the feel and know God.

Aha, I’m the person of the sky, I’m the person of heaven. I’m not going to live forever here, but go back someday back to heaven.

Before it’s too late, Before Jesus comes, I have to be prepared, be loyal, sacrifice, love and volunteer and when our Lord comes, I should give Lord the glorious crown, golden crown to him. Hallelujah. I wish you all of this grace.

Look and verse 56. Let us all read.

56Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad."

Last few month, we’ve been explaining Hebrew 11 and looked at the faithful ancestors. And we read about Abraham either. How could Abraham get a nickname like the ancestor of faith?

And what kind of faith was it, so he gave his son Isaac as a burnt offering? I was curious. And amazingly, the word we read today, verse 56. Abraham lived in a time before when bible was written few thousand years ago. But when Jesus explains about the part of faith of Abraham, let us read verse 56 again.

56Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad."

Amen.

Jesus said, Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”” What does this mean? Abraham lived a different period with Jesus. Abraham was a person who lived few thousand years ago, before Jesus was born.

But in the text says, Abraham saw my day, which Jesus came to earth, more specificly AD 30. And he was glad. Saw it and was glad is Aiden Kai Ekare in Greek bible. Amazingly, The Eiden and Ekire is aorist. The usage of aorist is tense of perfective aspect. It means it’s already complete.

Then Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad." means after few thousand years, Abraham saw the incident, Jesus coming to earth, dying in the cross, reviving. How is that possible? We live our life seeing things that are seen in front of us. Take a microscope and see our palm.

On the palm, there are lot of virus, that we cannot see. When we see virus on our palm, maybe we won’t be able to eat anything with our hands.

52At this the Jews exclaimed, "Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that if anyone keeps your word, he will never taste death.

  We can see things using microscope, telescope, and optic laser that can’t be seen through our eyes. That’s the power of science. One more step further, we can’t see with our eyes, nor science, but when our spiritual eyes are open, we can see things that we could not see with scientific strength. Hallelujah.

The Jews said Abraham died. But Jesus said, you say that if anyone keeps your word, he will never taste death. Jesus said, Abraham is not dead. The Jews talked was a simple death in this world.

But the death Jesus said is eternal deal. Everyone in this world is alive in front of God. Physically dead or alive people are all alive in front of God.

Jews said Abraham is dead, but Jesus did not say he’s dead. Jesus said, Abraham saw Jesus coming and reviving and becoming our hope and rejoiced, few thousand years ago. Abraham saw Jesus coming with the eyes of faith.

    In revelation 1, it’s written this way. Let us all read revelation 1 verse 1 to 3.

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1When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

2And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets.

3Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne.

Amen. John was the disciple of Jesus. But John is being persecuted by Roman Empire and was exiled to little island of Mediterranean sea. When John was exiled, angel come in front of John and told John to record that the world would become this way, and that is the revelation.

Are you not surprised? God has shown it. John is person that lived 2000 years ago. But he could have seen things after 2000 years later because God gave him eyes of faith, eyes of spirit.

Not just that. Revelation writes in detail about punishment of God that would come and the eternal Heaven.

Hallelujah.

God opened Abraham’s eyes to see Jesus Christ and Abraham was glad and rejoiced. And through John, he showed world after 2000, no. eternal world and gave him joy.

But more surprisingly, Abraham and John saw it. And more surprising thing is that Jesus opened our eyes who believes in Jesus to see all this world.

Hallelujah! What does it mean? Are you envious of Abraham? Are you envious of John? No. Abraham and John are envious of us seeing Abraham and John through God’s word, and the messiah that would come again and further, see eternal heaven through eyes of faith.

Today, you and I saw the birth of Jesus, through revealed bible, that Abraham has seen 2000 years ago. And saw 2000 year history revealed through John. And we see not just this period, but the second coming of Jesus, God’s judgement and eternal heaven. Hallelujah, Hallelujah. How thankful that is.

Let us bless our neighbors and greet each other.

Let’s read verse 51

51I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death."

Amen.

Jesus said, if anyone keeps his word, he will never see death. This means, if we keep word of Jesus, the promised God’s word, he would give eternal life. Hallelujah.