Show Notes
I think I preached the Gospel to a ghost in hell (Hades). She left this world of space and time and went home to Heaven. “Welcome home, Elise,” said Jesus, to which Elise replied, “I was lost.” “Lost.” This is why Scripture forbids necromancy (seeking direction from ghosts): They’re lost. I shared the story last week, and this is a continuation of that sermon.
We began this sermon with the local news story about the flying black shadow in the old church building that we used to rent — the one built upon an old Masonic cemetery. I haven’t shared that video before; it’s not the best advertisement for increasing church attendance. But we’re in a different building now, and although these things are frightening, I want us all to know that when we walk into our fears with Jesus (the Truth), He sets us free us from our fears that we might live in His joy. Perhaps the thing that we fear the most is ourselves.
If I were to assume the standard theological paradigm of the American Evangelical Church in which I was educated, I would be utterly lost in explaining our experiences in that old church building — and in explaining John chapter 8. I think I would be forced to conclude that all, or at least most of us, will “die in our sins” and be endlessly tortured by God, for even those that “believe in Jesus” are “of their father, the devil” and “not of God.” And so, I would hide my own heart from God, honor Him with my lips, but become an act, an appearance, a phantasm — a “phantasma” (Greek) — or an “ob” (Hebrew), a ghost... even before my body died.
Last week, we read John 8:21-47, and it raised at least three questions.
#3) Who or what is not of God? (John 8:47, “You are not of God,” said Jesus to the “Jews that had believed in him.”) Who is not of God? Nothing. God creates everything that’s anything with His Word. Evil must be a “nothing” that I perceive as a something, like a shadow.
#2) How could a person be “of God” and “not of God,” but of their “father, the devil”? (John 8:44) It helps to remember that “I” (spirit) have two “me’s” (selves) — a false self and a true self. “At one time, you were darkness,” writes Paul, “but now you are light in the Lord.”
#1) What does it mean to “die in your sin”? (John 8:21) It must be to take the life of Christ on the tree in a garden in an attempt to make the Good your own. It’s self-righteousness; it’s glorifying yourself. And that self is the nothing that I have made into a something and now perceive to be who it is that I am. And yet, it is who it is that I am not, and a prison for who it is that I am. According to Scripture, this has already happened. Perhaps ghosts won’t die, for they won’t admit that they’re dead? And the ghost that should concern us the most is our own.
This week, we also read John 8:48-59, and it raised more questions.
John 8:48-59: “The Jews answered him, ‘Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?’” (I don’t think Jesus was offended, for He isn’t proud.) “'I do not seek my own glory,’” answers Jesus. “‘There is One who seeks it.’” (In John 16, we learn that Jesus is glorified by giving His glory to us!) “’There is One who seeks it and he is the Judge’” (In John 5, Jesus told us that ‘The Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son.’) “’Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word (Jesus is the Word), he will not see death into the age.’ The Jews said to Him, ‘Now we know that you have a demon!... Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died?’... Jesus answered ‘If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing... Your father Abraham (Jesus thinks that they have at least two fathers!) rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad...’ Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I Am.’ So, they picked up stones to throw at him (I bet they were the same stones that they were going to throw at the woman caught in adultery), but Jesus was hidden and went out of the temple.”
“Destroy thi
More from The Sanctuary Downtown / Relentless Love
“The mere idea of you, the longing here for you. You'll never know how slow the moments go till I'm near to you. I see your face in every flower, your eyes in stars above. It's just the thought of you, the very thought of you, my love.” My wife and I have spent a lot of time on romantic vacations listening to those words sung by Billie Holiday or Nat King Cole.
Sometime around 1968, I learned about germs in school. They can be found in dirt and most of all, in the very pinnacle of depravity: poop. So, I began to wash my hands... a lot. I washed and washed, but I am a producer of human excreta, and so is everyone I know. So, it felt as if I was never finished. I was driven to cleanliness and then to the doctor, for my hands were red, raw, cracked and bleeding — open wounds susceptible to germs! I had been better off with no knowledge of “germs” and “not germs.” The doctor looked at my hands and said, “Stop (Shabat in Hebrew)! Stop washing your hands.” They hurt like hell, but it was hard as hell to stop.
John 18:38-40: “Pilate said to [Jesus], ‘What is truth?’ After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, ‘I find no guilt in him. But you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover. So do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?’ They cried out again, ‘Not this man, but Barabbas!’ Now Barabbas was a robber [lestes: a taker].”