Jesus Addressed A Select Audience

What Did Jesus Do?

“Whoever is of God hears the words of God.”
John 8.47

The oft-repeated claims made by our cell phone carrier on national television to the contrary, there are two places within a mile of our home where we lose the signal. That's right, we are literally surrounded by “dead zones.” When your cell phone screen shows “Dropped Signal” it is annoying, but that annoyance is nothing at all compared to the what happens to those who do not hear the words of God. When one is cut off from God's “signal” one is headed for a dreadful and eternal “dead zone.” Make no mistake, everyone will eventually hear God. But some will not hear him before the Judgment, and then what they hear will be terrible. What determines who can hear and who can't? Well, it depends on the answer to the age old question, “Who's your daddy?”

The children of God hear him just fine. But children not of God, all they can hear is lies. Since God speaks nothing but the truth, the children of the devil, the father of lies, cannot bear to hear the words of God (John 8.43). You see, when Jesus confronted the crowd in the Temple in Jerusalem, he addressed a select audience, only those of God, all the Father's children, could truly hear him. The words of the Lord are still intended for a select audience. This does not mean that we carefully herd God's flock into sanctuaries and lock the doors barring all others. There are still plenty of lost sheep to be found and brought in. The Word needs to be proclaimed far and wide, so that all may be given the opportunity to hear. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to give hearing to all the children the Father calls and claims through the Son.

Many who are in the “audience” will simply shrug and turn away, for the Gospel makes no sense at all to them. Others, not unlike many in the Jerusalem crowd, will respond with a rage that does not stop short of shedding blood. For those who hate the truth are driven by the devil, their “father,” who has been a murderer from the beginning, to do whatever he desires, even to commit the most heinous acts (John 8.44).

If you don't believe that the truth is under violent assault today, consider that in a growing number of places a pastor can be charged and jailed for “hate speech” simply for reading and proclaiming the Word of God. Do you think those “peace loving” children of Allah want to blow themselves, and us, up because they hear the truth and love God? The Father does not want his children to die for him, he sent the Son to die for his children. It's the devil who doesn't care about his children's lives.

The children of the devil? Well, because they still hate the truth and refuse to hear it, they still hate the Father, and the Son, and all the Father's children. For their part, the children of the Father are called to love and not to hate, and this love is to be extended even to the children of the devil. Being a child of God is a far more difficult calling than being a son or daughter of the devil.

For, even as Jesus spoke to all, in order to address a select audience, and thus fell into the hands of those who would do the will of the devil, so the Father requires that his children today speak his Word in order that a select audience may yet hear and be saved. Though those who do the will of the devil will yet raise their hand against the truth and against us, we do what Jesus did, and address the words of the Father to all his children.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4