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So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

Jesus is the only way to God, salvation, and Heaven. All the other “messiahs” were false… not simply misguided, but “thieves and robbers.” If you’re one of Jesus’ sheep, you don’t fall for the false words. You don’t follow the false messiahs. Jesus gives eternal life, an abundant life, because he laid down his for us. Jesus is the good shepherd, follow him.

“One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?”

You don’t have to know everything to follow Jesus. People will come to you and say “oh, you’re a Christian??? Well, how do you explain…” and they’ll try to tell you something they learned on You Tube. Don’t let it bother you. You’re response can be as simple as the man who was blind… “I’m not sure about all that, but one thing I know, Jesus saved me.”

Sure, go back and find out what the argument against Christianity actually is, and find the answer (don’t worry, there’s always an answer), but you don’t have to know the answer in the moment. When someone is asking and asking and asking, you ask them… “why are you asking? If I find the answer, will you follow Jesus too?”

They’ll usually leave you alone at that point… or they might be honest and say “I’ll never become a Christian.” Then you can simply say “then why are you even asking questions, if you simply believe what you believe regardless of the evidence?” It’s the atheist who usually thinks he’s being rational, when you point out they’re not, it tends to irritate them.

“Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

In this episode of the woman at the well* some religious people brought a woman “caught in the act of adultery.” If I remember my High School Biology correctly, that means there were two people who were caught… but they only brought one. That means they were not interested in Justice, they were interested in catching Jesus. It was illegal, in Rome, to kill someone… yet the OT Law demanded capital punishment for adultery. Jesus’ response is brilliant… only a righteous man is able to judge. Jesus is the only righteous one. The elders understood what Jesus was saying faster, so they left sooner. Jesus offers forgiveness: “Neither do I condemn you…” but he didn’t just wipe the slate clean, he said “from now on sin no more…” The call to follow Jesus is one where your sins are forgiven, but it’s also a call to really follow him and (allow him to) change your life.

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Are you still reading the NT with us in 2016? It’s not too late to start, find the plan here.

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

I’m known for getting caught-up in what I’m doing and accidentally working through a meal. Have you ever done that? You were busy doing something and do didn’t realize how thirsty you were until you stopped to take a drink and then you can’t get enough. That is where most people are spiritually. They don’t deny that Jesus is real, they just don’t realize they have not yet taken a drink from his living water. We must receive the gift of eternal life through Jesus, it’s by no means automatic. Jesus stood up on the day of the Feast of Booths in Jerusalem when streams of water were flowing through the streets to symbolize God’s provision to the people and he said “this is me! You are thirsty, come take a drink…” He still offers the same to us, “come take a drink… and never thirst again.” You need Jesus, if you don’t have him, you are thirsty and you may not even know it.

“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

What happens when we disagree? We don’t walk away. When you get in a disagreement, you need to go to that person. When you hear someone “discussing” someone in the church who isn’t present, you need to encourage them strongly to go DIRECTLY to them without talking to third parties. This isn’t just a suggestion, it’s what Jesus tells us to do. “It’s not my business” isn’t a phrase church members can honestly say, we are all members of one another and thus, it is our business… that’s membership. First go to them PRIVATELY. The second you talk to someone who’s not them, you’ve already circumvented the Lord’s prescription. If they aren’t reasonable or receptive to your honest, humble, biblical, loving critique, then bring a couple of other people into the mix… but these are people who are in the know, not just people “on your side.” These are meant to be “witnesses” who are somewhat already aware, not just your friends. Then what if this person isn’t willing to change? You bring it to the church.

Jesus is really clear on this one, you don’t bring it to the Deacons, the Elder board, the Pastor etc. “Elder Ruled” church is just not the New Testament model. The ultimate authority in the church is Jesus, and he is present in the assembly of the members, all of them. You take issues of membership “to the church” not a church representative. You start privately, and if they won’t listen, you get progressively more public until you bring in the entire church. Jesus, then, is in the decision the church makes. Whenever the church makes a decision, he’s in the midst of it. The way Jesus has chosen to make major decisions like who is in and out of his church is by congregational vote