We find that the church, raised up by God, refused to accept its God and was rejecting every invitation to come back to God. The church leaders and members had made the church system, traditions and ceremonies their god. The leaders of the church preferred a church they could control. They wanted money, power, ego, pride and worship. They did not want the humble Jesus as their God. Jesus, having been driven out of His church, and headed for the country of “sinners”.
John 4:4 – John 6:15
Now it was necessary for him to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the piece of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s Well was also there, and Jesus, tired out by the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
Jesus came to His own, and His own rejected Him. His church, the system He had developed and put in place to point the people to Him, His love, sacrifice and plan for their salvation, was now used against Him. The plan had become their savior. It had become “anti” Christ. It was used “in place of” Christ. Turning and separating from His church must have been painful. Sitting by Jacob’s Well, did He remember the love Jacob had for Him. Did He think of the commitment Jacob made to serve Him and to be obedient to Him? I wonder how many times Jesus had met with Jacob there at that well? Now, Jacob’s posterity had rejected Him and refused to render Him love and the obedience that was due Him. Jesus had promised them this land, filled with blessings, if only they would render to Him their devotion, service, obedience and love. His heart was heavy with grief.
Filled with sorrow at the thought of His own church rejecting Him, He looked up and saw a “pagan” woman coming to draw water. Would this “pagan” woman accept His truth? Would she accept Him as her Saviour? How to reach her?
A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus told her, “Please give me a drink,” since his disciples had gone off into town to buy food. The Samaritan woman asked him, “How can you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” Because Jews do not have anything to do with Samaritans.
It was a good thing Jesus was not “Politically Correct” or He would not have asked this pagan woman for a drink. How many of us have let opportunities go by because we have been trained to be “Politically Correct”? Jesus had what she wanted. She just didn’t know she wanted it. She wanted the “physical” aspects, water to quench her thirst and the thirst of her “family”. But she did not yet know that she was in need of a “spiritual” quenching of her thirst. Jesus, unconcerned with the taboos of the church or His own needs, sacrificed Himself for the needs of this woman whom the church despised and rejected. He reached her where her need was. Are you doing the same for those around you?
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, ‘Please give me a drink,’ you would have been the one to ask him, and he would have given you living water.”
Look how He draws her in. He doesn’t get prideful and haughty. He doesn’t puff Himself up and show how superior He was. He didn’t invite her to church. He didn’t try to explain how His church was better than hers. He simply asked her for a drink of water. This request was so out of the “norm” that it completely took her by surprise. In her surprise, and the question that followed, Jesus was able to slip in her true need: “Living Water”. This aroused her interest. What was “living” water?
The woman told him, “Sir, you don’t have a bucket, and the well is deep. Where are you going to get this living water? You’re not greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it, along with his sons and his flocks, are you?”
I find the same problem today as back then. When this ministry brings people the “Living Water” from Jesus, the majority immediately resist and make excuses why “their water” is better than what is offered by God. They tell me that “their well” was given by God. That “their well” had a prophet raised up by God. That “their well” is famous and wealthy. How in the past, “their well” watered many people. Why should they need what God is offering through another “well”?
Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks this water will become thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water that I will give him will never become thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become a well of water for him, springing up to eternal life.”
And how true that is today. When Jacob lived and used the well, the “water” he spoke of, and offered the people at the well, was the “Water of Life”. The well was a “church” for the people to gather around and hear of the spiritual water Jacob had to share. The well they gathered around could not satisfy their spiritual thirst. But by listening to Jacob share of the “Water of Life”, they were filled and satisfied with a water that was springing up to eternal life. Then they left and shared it with others.
By the time of Jesus, the well was no longer a place where the “Water of Life” could be obtained. The spiritual water had long since dried up. Now the well was used for war, hate and divisions. How sad. Our churches are no different than that well.
The woman told him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I won’t get thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
How many are wishing they did not have to keep going to the “well” of church, but could sit at home with the “Water of Life” welling up within them! How many are tired of the “well” of human wisdom, human understanding and the wars, hate and divisions around their “well”. Jesus is offering, right now, the “Water of Life” to you. Take this and call your family and friends, sharing it with them in the privacy of your own home. The Spirit of God has dictated and directed the information on our web site. Come and fill your soul with the “Living Water” of Jesus.
On the other hand, most, like the woman, think selfishly of what it will do for them. It is all about, “How can this message, this church, this person give me what I want?” They go about looking for what will fill the immediate selfish gratifications of temporary pleasure and happiness. However, what God offers goes far deeper. It will not only satisfy the selfish desires of the moment, but will fill the soul with a deep joy that brings true peace and fulfilment. The challenge for Jesus was to move her from the temporal need to the eternal fulfilment.
He told her, “Go and call your husband, and come back here.” The woman answered him, “I don’t have a husband.” Jesus told her, “You are quite right in saying, ‘I don’t have a husband,’ because you have had five husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true.”
He was not condemning her. Jesus was not accusing her. He simply wanted her to know that He could read her life and see her need. He wanted her to accept His love and a better life He had for her.
The woman told him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet! Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain. But you Jews say that the place where people should worship is in Jerusalem.”
Many are tired to their “well” of water. “You must worship here!” “No, we must worship there!” “Our church is of God, yours is of the devil!” “Only through our church can you get to Heaven!” “We are the ‘remnant’”. But none of it is correct. Jesus had the right answer.
Jesus told her, “Believe me, dear lady, the hour is coming when you Samaritans will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
That hour had come. The temple, the church of God, was no longer dispensing the “Living Water”. The church organization no longer offered the truth as God intended it. We are not to worship the Father in this church or that church, in this denomination or that denomination. Our worship of God is to be more than mere formalism, services and rituals. That kind of worship is Catholicism. Our worship is to be an individual, personal responsibility to God in changing our lives.
You don’t know what you’re worshiping. We Jews know what we’re worshiping, because salvation comes from the Jews.
All the churches and denominations of the world today do not know what they are worshiping. Jesus gave the “Jews” the truth and they were to give it to the world. But instead, they enclosed it and developed a “religion” around it. Then they segregated it and turned it into a money-making machine. All churches have followed their example. But you don’t need to be involved with that example. You can find the salvation that “comes from the Jews” in Jesus. He is the originator of it. Everything else is not of God. Jesus gave it to the Jews and He wants to give it to you just as He wanted to give it to the Samaritan woman at the well. What did He give to the Israeli nation that would bring salvation to the world? The Ten Commandments! But the churches have tossed them away and refuse to teach them.
Yet the time is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Indeed, the Father is looking for people like that to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
God is “spirit”: spiritual. He is not a church or denomination. Those who worship God must worship Him in the same spirit and truth that Jesus worshiped the Father. God is looking for those kinds of people. It isn’t a “place” that makes the worship. It is the worship that makes the place. Whether you are at a well, tending sheep, praying on a mountain top, standing before a ruler or in an olive grove, as long as you are worshiping God in His spirit and in His truth, you are accepted by God. Being a “Christian” is not about belonging to any church or denomination. A true “Christian” is one who lives that “spirit” and “truth” as Jesus lived and commanded: to be perfect, sinless and commandment keeping. That is the “spirit” of God.
“Although God dwells not in temples (churches) made with hands, yet He honors with His presence the assemblies of His people. He has promised that when they come together to seek Him, to acknowledge their sins, and to pray for one another, He will meet with them by His Spirit. But those who assemble to worship Him should put away every evil thing. Unless they worship Him in spirit and truth and in the beauty of holiness, their coming together will be of no avail. Of such the Lord declares, “This people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honoreth Me with their lips; but their heart is far from Me.” Matthew 15:8, 9. Those who worship God must worship Him “in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.” John 4:23.” PK 50.
The woman told him, “I know that the Anointed One is coming, who is being called ‘Messiah’. When that person comes, he will explain everything.” “I am he,” Jesus replied, “the one who is speaking to you.”
Right now, the message you are hearing is coming from the One who claims to be “I am He”. He has dictated and directed this material and has asked me to put it out for all who are thirsty. The well is deep and will satisfy your thirst if you will only believe and begin drinking.
At this point his disciples arrived, and they were astonished that he was talking to a woman. Yet no one said, “What do you want from her?” or, “Why are you talking to her?”
Don’t let those around you keep you from this well. Don’t let them discourage you in finding that “Living Water” Jesus is offering you through this ministry He has raised up. Arise, let the Light of Jesus flood your soul. Let the Water of Life fill you and quench your thirst. Don’t argue about who, what, where or when, just accept it wherever you are.
Then the woman left her water jar and went back to town. She told people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I’ve ever done! Could he possibly be the Messiah?” The people left the town and started on their way to him.
Leave your dry, empty water jar at church and go to your family, your neighbors and your friends and invite them to the information this ministry is putting out. Hand out the book, “Change Your Life Biblically” and fill them with the Water of Life. Jesus is waiting. What will you do?
Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, have something to eat.” But he told them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” So the disciples began to say to one another, “No one has brought him anything to eat, have they?” Jesus told them, “My food is doing the will of the one who sent me and completing his work.
Our “food” is not to go to church. We are not to look to our pastors. We are not to listen to our denominational TV, radio, media or internet programs. Our food is going out and DOING the will of God. The will of God is being obedient to the Ten Commandments in our own lives and then teaching others how to live that obedient, sinless and commandment keeping life. Let us follow the example of Jesus, not the church of man.
You say, don’t you, ‘In four more months the harvest will begin?’ Look, I tell you, open your eyes and observe that the fields are ready for harvesting now! The one who harvests is already receiving his wages and gathering a crop for eternal life, so that the one who sows and the one who harvests may rejoice together. In this respect the saying is true: ‘One person sows, and another person harvests.’ I have sent you to harvest what you have not worked for. Others have worked, and you have adopted their work as your own.”
Jesus does not command us to sit in church watching the fields. He does not command us to sit around reading about the fields that are ripe and ready for harvesting. He commands us to get up out of our churches and go into the fields and reap. To gather. To do the work Jesus was doing. He set the example and we are to follow Him.
Now many of the Samaritans of that town believed in Jesus because the woman had testified, “He told me everything I’ve ever done.” So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there for two days. And many more believed because of what he said.
Are you bringing people to Jesus? Or are you bringing them to a dead and dry “well” of church? Are you offering them “Living Water” or sour, tainted water of human wisdom, human traditions and the human services of your church? Jesus didn’t say, “Ok, let’s all go up to the temple in Jerusalem.” He didn’t tell them they had to be baptized into any church or denomination. He didn’t tell them to seek out a priest for instruction. He took the “Living Water” that was inside Him to them. In their own village, in their own homes He pointed them, not to a church, but to the truth that would change their lives.
They kept telling the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, because now we have heard him ourselves, and we know that he really is the Savior of the world.”
And so it is today as it was in the days of Jesus. It isn’t the “church” people who are believing, it is the inmates, the “Samaritans” along the highways and byways who are believing. They have heard for themselves and know that this ministry is really teaching the “Water of Life” because their own lives are being changed. They are not sitting in church, they are out taking the “Water of Life” to others who are thirsting. Cell to cell, tier to tier, dorm to dorm, prison to prison. Will you join us?
Another point that is often overlooked, there is no record of Jesus performing one miracle among them. They did not believe because of “miracles” or “signs and wonders”. They believed because Jesus offered them truth. He offered them a changed life. That life was the perfect, sinless life of the Ten Commandments. It was a life they could live without going to any church or denomination.
Two days later, Jesus left for Galilee from there, since Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him because they had seen everything that he had done in Jerusalem during the festival and because they, too, had gone to the festival.
This is interesting. He had no honor in His own church, therefore, instead of going back to Jerusalem, He left for pagan territory – Galilee. There, the people welcomed Him. Why? Because they saw Him drive out the moneychangers and those selling and buying in the temple. You see, they were not interested in a changed heart and life, they were looking for someone to change the system. It had to do with money and power. The system was stealing from them and they were happy for Jesus to clean it up. As long as He cleaned up the temple, their church, and made it the way they wanted it, not a problem. But just don’t talk about changing their hearts and lives. They wanted to keep the system, they just wanted it cleaned up a bit.
So Jesus returned to Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. Meanwhile, in Capernaum there was a government official whose son was ill. When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him repeatedly to come down and heal his son, because he was about to die.
People are willing to “come” to Jesus as long as they get what they want. They go to church for what they get out of it. It satisfies their ego, pride and social needs. Like the official, they are not going because they truly believe in Jesus and what He has to offer, but what they want to get out of Him. It was all about “signs and wonders”. But to believe because Jesus taught the truth, no!
Jesus told him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will never believe.”
Now the officer had to make choice. Either accept Jesus for who He was, or wait for the signs and wonders, in which case it might be too late and His son would die. His heart went out to Jesus and he humbled himself to believe in Him.
The official told him, “Sir, please come down before my little boy dies.” Jesus told him, “Go home. Your son will live.” The man believed what Jesus told him and started back home. While he was on his way, his servants met him and told him that his child was alive. So he asked them at what hour he had begun to recover, and they told him, “The fever left him yesterday at one o’clock in the afternoon.” Then the father realized that this was the very hour when Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.” So he himself believed, along with his whole family.
I have found this so true in my life. I was raised in a Sabbath church. It was all about church, signs and wonders, conspiracy theories and famous lives. I looked to Jesus as some sort of magician, a good trick player who could show me signs and wonders when I needed them. But then I found that I needed Jesus. Not for the signs and wonders, but for the “Living Water” He offers which will flow up constantly within me. He was a Friend I could walk with, talk with and trust to handle all my problems and troubles. It changed my whole perspective on life. I want you to experience a whole new life. I want you to find Jesus in your life.
The pagan official took Jesus at His word and left. Yet, I do not know of any “church people” who are taking Jesus at His word. They have accepted the word of the church, but when Jesus tells them to be perfect, to stop sinning and to keep the Ten Commandments to get their eternal life, they refuse to accept the word of Jesus.
Now this was the second sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee. Later on, there was another festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem is a pool called Bethesda in Hebrew. It has five colonnades, and under these a large number of sick people were lying—blind, lame, or paralyzed—waiting for the movement of the water.
How many are lying around church waiting for something to happen so they can be “moved” or healed. The church is filled with the blind who cannot see Jesus. It is filled with the lame of mind who refuse to believe Jesus. It is filled with those who are paralyzed with fear and refuse to work for Jesus. You don’t have to wait for “certain times” or places or people. Just look to Jesus. He is calling you out, right now, to follow Him.
At certain times an angel of the Lord would go down into the pool and stir up the water, and whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had. One particular man was there who had been ill for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I don’t have anyone to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I’m trying to get there, someone else steps down ahead of me.”
The man had been waiting for human help. Too many are waiting on the church. Jesus has pity and love for each of you. You are so dear to His heart. But the noise of church, the fears, the waiting for others is keeping you from Jesus.
Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!” The man immediately became well, and he picked up his mat and started walking.
Jesus is inviting you to stand up, pick up your mat and walk out of your church. Walk out from those who refuse to come to Jesus and be healed. Go out and share the joy of what Jesus has done for you.
Now that day was a Sabbath. So the Jews told the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.”
Typical church people and leaders. More concerned over their rules, traditions and church policy than the spiritual health of their members. Jesus does a good thing and the church points fingers, gossips and does all in its power to turn a good thing into a bad thing. Get out of your churches and go to Jesus and find the love and healing that He has to offer.
But he answered them, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’” They asked him, “Who is the man who told you, ‘Pick it up and walk’?” But the one who had been healed did not know who it was, because Jesus had slipped away from the crowd in that place.
I can imagine that there was no small commotion after the healing. After all, the other sick and lame were watching everyone else. It was a big deal watching a man who had been lying there for 38 years get up and walk. He was probably shouting at the top of his voice, “Look at me, I can walk”. However, being the Sabbath day, picking up his mat was against church law. Naughty, naughty of him! How sad that the churches today cannot rejoice in the works of God unless they are done according to church protocol. If God is not working within their church or denomination, obviously, the work isn’t of God. How sad.
Later on, Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “See, you have become well. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” The man went off and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. So the Jews began persecuting Jesus, because he kept doing such things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I, too, am working.”
God is not limited by our limitations. He works without any respect to church, denomination or belief. God works where the need and faith is. Not where it will bring glory to a church or denomination. All praise, glory and honor are to go to Jesus and Jesus only. If it goes anywhere else, that person, church or thing becomes “anti” Christ: “In place of” Christ.
Jesus laid out the conditions of staying well: stop sinning. The churches refuse to accept that truth. Churches have put their faith in nuts, fruits, vegetables and grains. They have put their faith in clothes and the abstinence of coffee, drugs, alcohol and tea. They have put their faith in their pastor, church and denomination. But they have not put their faith in Jesus and His truth: stop sinning, be perfect and keep the Ten Commandments to get your eternal life. To get to Heaven, you must clean out the life of church and sin. I have found this true in my life.
So the Jews were trying all the harder to kill him, because he was not only breaking the Sabbath but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God.
Oh, how sad that the church could not rejoice over a soul saved from years of misery. They could not rejoice over a healing. Since He broke the “church” rules and laws, they were ready to commit murder. I have found that same behavior in our churches today. I was giving a Bible study in a church on Sabbath when the elders came and physically picked me up and threw me out. They hated the truth. I was teaching them to stop sinning, be perfect and to keep the Ten Commandments to get their eternal life, and they did not want to hear it. The sad part was, it was a church that “kept the Sabbath”. Well, they went to church on the 7th day, but they kept their businesses open on Sabbath. What hypocrites. And they thought God loved them for going to church on the Sabbath. How brainwashed they were.
Jesus told them, “Truly, I tell all of you with certainty, the Son can do nothing on his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing, What the Father does, the Son does likewise.”
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if our churches lived as Jesus lived? If they would do only what they see the Father doing. If each of us would give our lives to Jesus instead of to a church, what a difference our lives would make in this world.
“The Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing, and he will show him even greater actions than these, so that you may be amazed.”
God the Father cannot love the churches when they are doing it their own way. The Bible shows us what happens to churches who refuse to be obedient to Jesus. We see the examples all through the Bible. Revelation tells us what will happen, again, to those who refuse to work for Jesus. If you are working for your church, you are not working for Jesus. The Bible warns us. All church organizations are classified as “Babylon”, a Whore and the “Anti-Christ”, in the Bible. Get out and work for Jesus and He will show you great and mighty things.
“Just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to those he chooses.”
Eternal life is not for everyone. It is only for those “He chooses”. Whom does He choose to give life to? To those who are obedient to Him. Those who live by His word to: stop sinning, be perfect and to keep the Ten Commandments to get your eternal life.
“The Father judges no one, but has given all authority to judge to the Son, so that everyone may honor the Son as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, I tell all of you with certainty, whoever hears what I say and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged, but has passed from death to life.”
And how do we “honor the Son”? Those honor the Son who “hears what I say and believes”. If you are not listening to and believing what Jesus commands, you are not honoring Him. To claim to be a Christian while disobeying Jesus is an affront to Jesus. If you think He will take you to Heaven because you go to church, you are mistaken. Believe in Jesus and obey when He commands you to be perfect, stop sinning and to keep the Ten Commandments to get your eternal life.
“Truly, I tell all of you with certainty, the time approaches, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear it will live. Just as the Father has life in himself, so also he has granted the Son to have life in himself, and he has given him authority to judge, because he is the Son of Man.”
Up to this point, in the book of John, Jesus had not raised any dead to life. He healed the sick, but the church kept insinuating that it was the work of demons or trickery. Jesus was letting them know that He and the Father were one. There was nothing the Father could do that He could not also do. It is the same with us. Jesus is our example. When we live in obedience to Jesus, we have the authority to work as Jesus worked. It isn’t about going to church or belonging to any denomination, it is about living as Jesus lived and commands.
“Don’t be amazed at this, because the time is approaching when everyone in their graves will hear the Son of Man’s voice and will come out—those who have done what is good to the resurrection that leads to life, and those who have practiced what is evil to the resurrection that ends in condemnation.”
We do not go to heaven immediately upon death. The Bible is very plain that we wait in the grave until the end of time when Jesus will come to call the dead to life. That “time is approaching . . .” and will soon be upon us. Jesus calls death a “sleep”. Jesus is also very plain that we are judged by what we do. We “earn” our eternal life. Salvation is a “free” gift, but only those who have “earned” that “free” gift will get it. In other words, God did not have to offer anyone eternal life. Because of our sins, we deserve nothing but death. But in His great love and grace for us, God freely “opened” the way for eternal life. He “gave” the opportunity to us. But in order for us to receive that opportunity into our own individual lives, we must earn it. We must “have done what is good” in order to get eternal life. Likewise, those who have “earned” their eternal death will have earned it because they “have practiced what is evil”. It all comes down to our own actions. Jesus can’t save one sinner who refuses to repent and live the sinless, perfect life of the Ten Commandments as Jesus did.
“I can do nothing on my own accord. I judge according to what I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me.”
The only reason Jesus was raised from the grave was because he was not seeking “My own will, but the will of the One who sent Me”. Jesus “earned” His resurrection from the grave unto eternal life. He did exactly what His Father commanded Him. If we want to be raised unto eternal life with Him, we must follow His example. He did not seek His own will. Unfortunately, going to church is our own will since Jesus has not commanded it.
Jesus will judge you at the end of time. His judgment is impartial because He is not giving out eternal life on a whim or a feeling. He is impartial because He judges by what He “hears”. What is He “hearing” about you? Are you living the sinless, perfect Ten Commandment life so He will “hear” good reports about you? Or are you living a rebellious church life, refusing to live as Jesus has commanded you?
“If I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is not trustworthy. There is another who testifies about me, and I know that the testimony he gives about me is true. You have sent messengers to John, and he has testified to the truth. I myself do not accept human testimony, but I am saying these things so that you may be saved.”
If you go to church, you are not hearing the truth as Jesus taught it. You are hearing what man teaches. You are hearing what the devil has been teaching through man. But if you go to Jesus and listen carefully to Him, you will hear the truth. Don’t let your church stand in the way of your eternal life. Don’t let your ego, pride and arrogance stand in the way of your eternal life. Don’t let the world and all it has to offer stand in the way of your eternal life. Humble yourself, go to Jesus and lay your opinions, your beliefs and all you have at His feet and pick up His truth and live it.
The people believed John to be a prophet of God. They went out to him to be baptized. They listened to John and changed their lives. Why? Because John taught them to be obedient to the Ten Commandments. The church leaders did not go to listen to the truth, they sent men to John to find out who he was. He told them plainly that he was not the Christ. Then, he pointed to Jesus and exclaimed that He was the “Lamb of God”. But the church refused to listen. All churches refuse to listen. It is not in their worldly best interest to listen to God. No, in order to get wealth, power, fame and worldly blessings, they cannot be obedient to Jesus.
“That man John was a lamp that burns and brightly shines, and for a while you were willing to rejoice in his light. But I have a greater testimony than John’s, because the actions that the Father has given me to complete—the very actions that I am doing—testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me.”
“The actions that the Father has given me to complete . . .”. There it is again. Throughout the entire Bible, the concept of working our way into Heaven is plainly taught. Why are you still going to church? Nowhere in all the Bible will you find any command to go to church for your eternal life. Why do you disobey God for your church? When will you show by your actions that you love God more than man?
“Moreover, the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen what he looks like, nor do you have his word at work in you, because you do not believe in the one whom he sent.”
Do you “have His word at work in you”? Are you working hard to put “His word at work in you”? If His word is not working in you, you have no eternal life. That “word” is what Jesus spoke: be perfect, stop sinning and keep the Ten Commandments to get your eternal life. Jesus came as our example and put the word of God to work in His life so He could have eternal life. Why are you not following Him? Why are you still in church?
“You examine the Scriptures carefully because you suppose that in them you have eternal life.”
Oh, you go to church, prayer meeting and other religious services and you take your Bible. You open it and listen to your pastor or teacher. You turn the pages of the Bible and “examine the Scriptures carefully because you suppose that in them you have eternal life”. But you don’t have eternal life. Reading the Bible, “learning” a few facts and verses will not get you into Heaven. Lucifer does the same thing. He is in church far more than you are. He is in every religious service. He even knows the Bible. Putting on the show will do you no good. Why? Jesus answers that?
“Yet they testify about me. But you are not willing to come to me to have life.”
That is correct. You refuse to go to Jesus to have eternal life. You are going to your church, your church services, Bible studies and other useless programs, but you are not going to Jesus. You study your Sunday or Sabbath School Lessons and listen to your other church media, yet you refuse to listen to Jesus when He says, “Stop sinning, Be perfect and Keep the Ten Commandments to get your eternal life”! Your church is killing you! Your church is run by the devil. He has come to you as an angel of light, however, you refuse to look past the show, the “front”, and see the darkness behind. Why? Because you refuse to go to Jesus and see the truth.
“I do not accept human praise. I know that you do not have the love of God in you.”
You can put on all the show you want praising God and pretending that you are “worshiping” Him. If you are going to church, like the Pharisees, you “do not have the love of God in you”. Unless you get out of your church, go to Jesus, sitting at His feet and learning what He wants you to do, you are lost.
“The Bible has little to say in praise of men. Little space is given to recounting the virtues of even the best men who have ever lived. This silence is not without purpose; it is not without a lesson. All the good qualities that men possess are the gift of God; their good deeds are performed by the grace of God through Christ. Since they owe all to God the glory of whatever they are or do belongs to Him alone; they are but instruments in His hands. More than this—as all the lessons of Bible history teach—it is a perilous thing to praise or exalt men (church); for if one comes to lose sight of his entire dependence on God, and to trust to his own strength, he is sure to fall. Man is contending with foes who are stronger than he. ‘We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in high places.’ Ephesians 6:12, margin. It is impossible for us in our own strength to maintain the conflict; and whatever diverts the mind from God, whatever leads to self-exaltation or to self-dependence, is surely preparing the way for our overthrow. The tenor of the Bible is to inculcate distrust of human power and to encourage trust in divine power.
“It was the spirit of self-confidence and self-exaltation that prepared the way for David’s fall. Flattery and the subtle allurements of power and luxury were not without effect upon him. Intercourse with surrounding nations also exerted an influence for evil. According to the customs prevailing among Eastern rulers, crimes not to be tolerated in subjects were uncondemned in the king; the monarch was not under obligation to exercise the same self-restraint as the subject. All this tended to lessen David’s sense of the exceeding sinfulness of sin. And instead of relying in humility upon the power of Jehovah, he began to trust to his own wisdom and might. As soon as Satan can separate the soul from God, the only Source of strength, he will seek to arouse the unholy desires of man’s carnal nature. The work of the enemy is not abrupt; it is not, at the outset, sudden and startling; it is a secret undermining of the strongholds of principle. It begins in apparently small things—the neglect to be true to God and to rely upon Him wholly, the disposition to follow the customs and practices of the world (church).” PP 717.
We have done the same with our churches. We have followed the example and customs of the world in their worship and have become “Catholic” in the process. There is nothing done in or through our churches that is of God. Because we sit in church we think we are safe to do all the sins of the world and still be accepted by God. How satanic. Get out of your church or be lost forever.
“I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me. Yet if another man comes in his own name, you will accept him.”
How true! You accept your church which comes in its own name, yet you have rejected Jesus who has come in the Father’s name. You refuse to accept Jesus while you sit in church listening to man teach you nonsense. Please tell me, when was the last time your church, your pastor or any leader of your church took you aside and told you of a sin in your life you needed to repent of and leave out of your life? That is the true Christian organization. We are not here to build churches. We are not here to praise each other. We are not here to speak of the things we want to hear. We are here to show people what they need to do in order to earn their eternal life. We must warn people that probation is about to close and if they are not living the perfect, sinless life, they will be lost. If you don’t tell them, they will receive their reward of eternal death and you will be held responsible.
“How can you believe when you accept each other’s praise and do not look for the praise that comes from the only God?”
Exactly! You go to church accepting each other’s praises, but you are not looking to Jesus for the praise that comes from Him. You do nothing that praises Him. Praise of the mouth is an abomination to Jesus if the life is not praising Him through a life of sinlessly keeping the Ten Commandments perfectly. Going to church or belonging to any denomination thinking you are doing it right, is not praising God. Going to Jesus and learning from Him how to live obediently, that is praising God.
“Do not suppose that I will be the one to accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope, because if you believed Moses, you would believe me, since he wrote about me. But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe my words?”
When you stand before the bar of God, your accuser will be the Bible. Even though you have carried it around with you, read from it and claim that it is from God, you are not obeying it. From Genesis to Revelation, it teaches you to stop sinning, be perfect and keep the Ten Commandments to get your eternal life. Therefore, it will be your accuser in the end. Jesus will not care what church you belonged to. He will not care what denomination you belonged to. He will not care what day you went to church on. Jesus will simply look at you and ask, did you obey the Bible? Since there is no command in the Bible to go to church, what will you say? Why not get up, get out of your church and live in obedience to Jesus?
After this, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias). A large crowd kept following him because they had seen the signs that he was performing by healing the sick.
Church members are no different today. They follow the crowd and look for signs and entertainment that are being performed by our churches, media programs and pastors. When will we stop, get out of our churches and sit quietly in nature and listen to Jesus?
But Jesus went up on a hillside and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When Jesus looked up and saw that a large crowd was coming toward him, he asked Philip, “Where can we buy bread for these people to eat?”
When God called me to this ministry, I looked up and saw two million inmates. How was I going to “feed” them? It was impossible by human standards. I had no money. I had nothing to my name.
Jesus said this to test him, because he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread isn’t enough for each of them to have a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, who was Simon Peter’s brother, told him, “There’s a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two small fish. But what are these among so many people?” Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was plenty of grass in that area, so they sat down, numbering about 5,000 men. Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were seated. He also distributed as much fish as they wanted. When they were completely satisfied, Jesus told his disciples, “Collect the pieces that are left over so that nothing is wasted.” So they collected and filled twelve baskets full of pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.
Jesus told me to take it inch by inch, step by step, slow and easy. All I had to do was stay in step with Him, listen to Him and do what He told me. As I listened to Him, I would share it. Basket by basket the “food” has gone out to over 40,000 direct inmates with a residual effect of over 130,000 inmates being touched by the “food”. Since 1997, this little ministry is still feeding and gathering up. I want to thank those “little boys and girls” who have been willing to share their “barley loves and two small fish” with this ministry so we can feed the thousands of inmates.
When the people saw the sign that he had done, they kept saying, “Truly this is the Prophet who was to come into the world!” Then Jesus, realizing that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, withdrew again to the hillside by himself.
This is what makes our pastors, churches and denominations so dangerous. They put on a little “show and tell” entertainment and people want to bow down to them, praise them and make them so important. The people run around talking about the show and entertainment, their church, pastor or denomination. Church members run all over the country and the world, following after church speakers, leaders and entertainers. It is all “anti” Christ. Placing the pastor, church and denomination “in place of” Jesus. They get the praise and glory, Jesus gets nothing. They are standing “in place of” Jesus and turning the eyes of the people away from God.
Jesus left and would not allow the people to do that to Him. He was not interested in “human” praise and honor. He wanted the praise and honor that comes from a broken and contrite heart. A heart that humbly submits to the truth and stops sinning and lives the Ten Commandments perfectly as Jesus commands.