Divisions

Introduction

Satan is having a field day

with the Jews that are listening and around Jesus.

Satan is having a field day with the church today.

But Friends i know this as TRUTH.

Jesus is Lord over all and works all things for good.

Jesus is in full control

It may be an over simplification to some

and doubt of God’s Word is a tool of the devil.

This whole situation is a simple battle over

Good vs Evil

Facts and Truth

Satan vs Jesus

God Truth vs. Our Truth

(by a way of reminding you, our mission in live is to live like Jesus, to model Him ---- so we must seek His Truth in all things)

The battle plan is to have man

come to a fork in the road, and be confused on which path to take.

to chose right or wrong and not have a clear path.

The tools of Satan include deceiving and encouraging us to believe a lie.

Truth or Deceit

Truth or Lie

God’s Truth vs. the World’s Truth

When God says in His Word to not do something,

i can promise you Satan wants to steer

you to a justification of that issue.

Our minds and the minds of the Jews

in these passages is exactly that

They have heard the Truth, read the Truth and even Memorized the Truth

Yet the Truth is standing among them and they are at the fork in the road.

I like the illustration of a fork in the road

one path is Truth God’s way

the other is a Lie

Yet Satan has sought to obscure the sign with briars weeds and vines

and even when we clear the distractions we still doubt the way to go.

there is a playground of tempting DISTRACTIONS from the ONE Truth path.

and the strategy is the same as in the Garden of Eden

Make a person doubt God, doubt God’s Word,

and add a cup of selfishness, pride, power and evil intention

and you have the message of our passages today

Facts are not TRUTH

Let me make sure that we are on the same page as i move through this message this morning.

The facts in any situation are not inherently TRUTH

In fact the dictionary defines

Deception as to mislead by false appearance of statement to delude

Delude to mislead the mind or judgement of a situation

and our message to day is about Divisions

Divisions among the people caused by battling facts

battling facts and truth

There are three truths in any situation

one parties the other parties and the actual truth.

think about any of the Law shows that you watch.

one’s truth and another’s truth creates a battle.

the problem is not just in the court room

but in living our daily life.

we want the truth that we want to be

the Actual TRUTH

Political

Religion

Parenting

Schooling

the list goes on.

Let me ask you a tough question.

When you hear a piece of information that conflicts do you PAUSE and PRAY, do you PONDER for a time

seeking to filter God’s Truth and the worlds truth

or do you allow YOUR BELIEFS to get involved?

Seriously that is a tough reality.

The Bible tells us

Proverbs 3:5–6 (ESV)

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

The problem is easy to define

We must chose to find TRUTH which is GOD’s TRUTH

and establish where it is that we are trusting to get it.

GOD’s TRUTH is THE TRUTH

We must understand the context in these passages.

There are Three mindsets going on in the Book of John

Haters - people that will not hear the Truth. People that simply refuse to hear anything outside of their belief system

Lovers - People that found Jesus, humbled themselve to accept Him --- to believe in Him

and the largest group by far in our passages the last few weeks

Fence Sitters - people in the gray area People who are not sure what to believe, are confused what to believe and not sure of what TRUTH to believe and follow

I would say NOT MUCH has changed.

Lets look at the verses today

John 7:40–52 (ESV)

40 When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.”

41 Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee?

42 Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?”

43 So there was a division among the people over him.

44 Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

45 The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?”

46 The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!”

47 The Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived?

48 Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?

49 But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.”

50 Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them,

51 “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?”

52 They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”

i love our weekly challenge to ask and answer the

WHY?

Jesus has just stated that if you believe that you can have the Living Water

if you are wanting, come to Jesus, and He will provide.

The living water is a reference to the Holy Spirit

The people listening are hearing the same words,

but the interpretation is varied.

The lovers, the haters and the fence sitters.

some are saying THIS IS THE CHRIST,

This is the prophet, other are caught up in where

THEY think HE was BORN and not the TRUTH

They are leaning on their understanding

they are leaning on facts that are not Truth.

The use of the word prophet

gives us a clue to the basis of there connection to Truth.

Deuteronomy 18:15 (ESV)

15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—

Many if not most of the audience, had memorized the Torah, or at the very least had been taught Deut. 18:15

They are aware of the coming of the GREATEST PROPHET, coming to Save Them.

We must be aware how important Moses is to the audience.

the bread of life in their mind is a connection to the manna in the wilderness

and the living water is a reference to Moses and the spring of water from the rock.

Both are very clearly God providing sustenance

and God’s promise of giving them a SAVIOR.

verse 40 is the people who PRETTY MUCH GET IT

verse 41 (first part) is the people FULLY GET IT

and verse 42 is the Facts over TRUTH statement

the people that want to lean on their understanding.

and verse 43 is the main point of the message today.

Division is the BODY, Division in believing

and the mindsets involved.

The Fork in the road is often easy to see

the path you are on is now giving you a choice.

its the distractions

the desires of our heart

that are not in God’s Plan

Haters, Lovers, Fence Sitters

Haters- invite you into Satans Playground

Lovers- Encourage you to stay out and play in a different one. Lovers teach others how to make the right choices and teach them to trust.

The Fencesitters --- Well frankly they are confused.

In

Out

staring in the fence

googling images of the playground

you get it.

That is our scene with Jesus today.

Jesus, His disciples, and His Believers are the lovers

Satan, the Pharisees are the Haters

and many many of the People don’t know which Truth is Real. --- the FENCE SITTERS

Facts are not TRUTH

Listen to Understand

The issue starts with our mindset

Our choice of mindset

You see if i go to lecture on new star formation

and since i don’t know anything about it

i approach the lecture with an open mind,

i don’t have a clue where the lecture will go.

but if the start challenging my current facts, then i must chose to accept or reject.

BUT if i go to a lecture on Tiling a Floor

Then i do with the mindset of knowing my way

and wanting to see or learn another way

and when they do something Wrong

i must make a choice in hearing them.

Do i go OH let me see if i can learn?

Oh cool, i love that “trick”

or do i get prideful and say “ what in the world are they doing?”

the speaker isn’t changing his intent, by my perception is what must be discerned.

The reality of it is that both of these situation will start with an opposing mindset,

but as the lecture goes on

my mind will start to form battle lines

- Filters for Truth and the information starts to get sorted into

Yes, maybe or No.

Some came to Jesus heard His voice and believed

they said Yes

Some came and hated what He was saying to the point of wanting to kill Him.

But most came to hear a new thing or an adaptation of at thing that they thought they knew well

and these people are the FENCE SITTERS

They are confused.

Our facts, The Truth

This is exactly where Divisions come from.....

at least two people with opposing viewpoints who are not willing to HEAR the other,

not willing to accept something new

NOT willing to change their thinking at all

Divisions start

klicks form

holy huddles without Jesus as the Quarterback. With out the input of God who is the Coach, Owner and GM

Denominations form

and DISUNITY arrives

Deceived by our Thinking

Have you ever thought something

Proceed to act on it and

then discover that you are absolutely wrong

Look we filter things through lens

Historical

Cultural

Political

which are good tools, gifts for WISDOM

BUT with out the FIRST FILTER

the MAIN FILTER

all is Lost

We must begin to look at

GOD’s Plan

and HIS Word

The WORD OF GOD IS JESUS.

The Proper Lens in Proper Order:

Biblical, Historical and Cultural

Know the Word of God

use your experiences your history

and apply into Culture

don’t bend into culture

We are in this world, not of this WORLD.

Submission to Truth

Friends the mission today was

Very practical

We must be like Jesus and not the crowd

we must be like Jesus and not blindly obey our earthly masters

RIGHT IS RIGHT

Wrong is Wrong

Satan wants to have us lean on ourselves or the world

Jesus wants you to fully lean on HIM

and our study and commitment will allow us to both hear and know truth.

Let us be LOVERS of JESUS.

lets Pray