Your Father Shows Up in How You Take the Word.

I’ve had people see me standing next to one of my kids and say, “You can’t deny that one.” Nobody asked for a birth certificate because they saw the resemblance in the eyes and the jawline and knew.

Jesus used that same instinct in John 8. The men in front of Him were Abraham’s seed, and He told them so. He granted the bloodline. Then He switched to the word children, which in Scripture speaks of who you imitate. “If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.” Abraham ran toward a word from God. These men had God Himself standing in front of them and picked up stones.

Jesus named the root of it: “my word hath no place in you.” They knew the Scriptures and had plenty of access to them. The soil was already taken up with pride and prejudice, and the word had nowhere to land.

You can carry that and still look right on Sunday with your family in the pew, and a date written in the front of your Bible. I’m not making light of those things. But Jesus was after what happens inside you when the word touches something you didn’t want touched.

Some of us have been playing wall ball with Scripture. The word gets thrown at the heart and bounces right back, and somebody else throws it harder.

There is mercy in that chapter. Jesus said the problem out loud and gave them time to change fathers. If a text stings this week, stay with it. A child of God wrestles with the word. Being willing to be wrong about something you were sure of is Abraham’s likeness.

Whose child are you?

If this one stung a little, stay with it. The full message from John 8 is below, and I’d love for you to hear Jesus build the case from start to finish:

Pastor Fortunato
Founding Pastor & Preacher of the Word.
Pilgrim Baptist Church — Cookeville, Tennessee

https://pilgrimbaptist.church/
https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/pilgrimbaptist/