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 this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” That’s the seventh sign that is the substance. Jesus turns hearts of stone into living stones that come together and form a living temple. Perhaps Jesus “was hidden” within them like a Seed? #4) What is death and Life? Jesus talks as if everyone’s dead, and yet some won’t die??? #5) What is judgment? Jesus talks as if no one judges, but everyone is getting judged??? #6) Why is He telling us? Jesus isn’t giving us anything to do??? #7) What can I do? A little over a year after we learned about the Masons and prayed for Elise, a dark shadow reappeared in the old church building on Christmas Eve. Once again, Susan and I prayed. Before, we had bound a demonic spirit named “Secrets,” and this time many more spirits, including “Lucifer.” (I know this sounds crazy! I know we all don’t have the same experiences! You don’t have to believe me, but you can believe Scripture and the Word of God!) Along with two other members of our prayer team, we were directed to a dark room in the basement of that old church building. We took communion, for the eternal covenant supersedes all other covenants, including those which people in secret societies make in order to glorify themselves. We then prayed a long-written prayer renouncing Masonic oaths, including a declaration that “Lucifer is god.” It is supposedly taken at the 33rd degree (I don’t imagine that all orders are the same, but that’s what we did.) And of course, we called on Jesus. He appeared next to Lucifer and a host of other demonic spirits, having been bound and placed in a box. I don’t see these things, but those with me who are so gifted do see these things. At one point, my wife and our friends saw a circle of children surrounding a man holding a knife who had just sacrificed a goat and was threatening the children. Behind them stood their fathers in dark robes with their hands on their children’s shoulders. Over the span of an hour or so, I led us in prayer, and my wife and friends described what they were witnessing. Jesus appeared in the center of the circle, shrunk the box full of demons, put it in His pocket, put the goat back together, and brought it to life. The children went to Jesus, then turned, forgave their fathers, and led their fathers to Jesus. And as they did, the fathers, now stripped of the dark robes, grew young — and together with their children began to smile, laugh, and pet the goat. The dark basement turned into a party! I said, “Jesus, can they go home?” A door opened in the wall on the side of the basement. On the other side of the door were beautiful trees, hills, and sunshine. My wife laughed out loud and said, “I wish you could’ve seen it, Peter! They went through the door, and just before it closed, the goat ran after them bleating. It was so cute!” #4) What is death? Death is attempting to glorify yourself and so trapping yourself alone in yourself — your false self, the product of the lie that you must save yourself: “Me-sus.” And what is life? Life is quite literally seeking someone else’s glory; it’s losing yourself and finding yourself in Je-sus (Yahweh is salvation). Life is the party in the middle of the room and the eternal reality on the other side of the door. The souls in the basement were dead, but they experienced the death of death — the second death which is eternal life. “I know that the father’s commandment is eternal life,” said Jesus the Word (John 12:50). #5) What is the judgment? It’s not a decision that God has yet to make; it is the decision that is, in fact, God. God is Love. Eternal life is a communion of sacrificial Love. Love is the decision to glorify another. God is Love, and Jesus is the Word of Love. “I give my glory to no other,” says God in Isaiah. And yet, Isaiah hears the Seraphim say, “The whole earth is filled with the glory of God.” God is the glory that fills all things with Himself through His Word. #6) Why is Jesus telling us this stuff? Maybe so that when it happens, we’ll be grateful. . . and join the party. I seem to always think that there’s something I must do, but first I need to know that I’m something that God has done. And maybe He’s doing it right now; He does everything with His Word. It is the Word that’s “living and active.” And the Word is a Seed. The Seed is planted in you as a Breath, “The Seed of the Woman,” like an egg. And He comes to you as a Word that is heard (“sperma” in Greek). When He “finds a place in you,” the curtain rips, and the glory of God begins to fill His temple — dark becomes Light, lies become Truth, sin becomes Grace, and you/we begin to live. All because of the Word. After that day in the basement, it happened a few more times. The last time (that I’m aware of), my wife heard weeping behind a locked crawl-space door and a voice that said, “Leave me alone.” We had communion and prayed just outside that door. She saw figures cowering in the dark. Jesus appeared. My wife said, “Peter, they’re cowering in the darkness and won’t look up. He’s so bright, and they’re so ashamed.” So, as with Elise and as with the Masons in the basement, I began to tell them about Jesus. “He doesn’t condemn you. He adores you.” At one point, my wife said, “Peter, it’s so amazing — the moment they look up, they rise, go to Jesus, and then on through a door . . . But Peter, there are some that won’t look up.” After a time, Jesus said, “I’m leaving this door here for those that will still come.” Later that day, we entered that crawl space and found bulletins from 1904, confirming things that were seen in the visions. Susan heard the Lord say, “Children of the desolate, you are desolate no longer,” and we realized that we were directly under the spot where I would stand and preach each Sunday morning. I’ve often looked out, seen very few faces, and thought to myself, “No one is listening.” But then, I’ve remembered the door under the floor and preached with conviction. “The gates of hell (Hades) will not prevail against my church,” said Jesus. It doesn’t matter what people think of me or if they attend “my church,” but it does matter that on that day, people look up. Question #7) What can I do? In Christ, I can speak the Word that destroys “the work of the devil” and “makes all things new.” And so can you. It’s not a transaction, not a threat, not an argument; it is a statement of fact: “God is Salvation.” It forms a name: Jesus. Jesus destroys “Me-sus,” and sets me free to join the Party. He gives up the ghost. Question #1) What does it mean to die in your sin, “the sin of you all”? It doesn’t mean that some will be endlessly tortured by God, but it may mean that some will be trapped in themselves for a time. So, speak the Word — “Jesus” is the Ghost Buster. “The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him. His rage we can endure, for lo his doom is sure. One little word shall fell him.”

Nothing stresses me out quite like preaching, but I feel called to do it. It’s like Jesus said to Peter (the other one), “Feed my sheep.” I wake up in the middle of the night to this terrifying question: “How are you going to feed the sheep?” At 3a.m., I don’t think it’s Jesus that’s asking the question. I often think of role models, like my old friend Tim. He was an amazing communicator, husband, and father, but many years ago he asphyxiated himself, leaving a letter behind for his church. In it, he stated, “It is my own wretched weakness of which I am most ashamed.” I think he was haunted by that voice: “Tim, how are you — depressed and lonely — going to feed His sheep?” My old friend Bruce pastored a beautiful ministry to the homeless of Denver. Then, tragically, one evening, hung himself from the banister in his home. Jim was also a friend and part of our church. He had been a “successful” pastor until his life fell apart. Jim was then surprised by Grace, wrote about Grace, and preached Grace. But like Tim and Bruce and me, he also struggled with that voice: “How are you going to feed the sheep?” And he took his own life.... I did the funeral service for both Bruce and Jim. At the end of Jim’s service, I asked this question, “How do I know that I won’t do the very same thing?” I would imagine you’ve heard the question at 3 a.m.: “How will you feed the sheep? How will you care for those that God has given to you?” In John 6, great crowds have come to Jesus in a field by the sea. He turns to Philip and asks, “Where are we to buy bread so that these people may eat?” Philip answers, “Two hundred denarii would not be enough...” Andrew, Peter’s brother, says, “There is a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two little fish, but what are they among so many?” Jesus gives “thanks” [eucharisto in Greek. It’s where we get our word “Eucharist”]. And everyone has more than enough to eat. Jesus has The Twelve pick up the leftover fragments that “nothing would be lost.” It's the fourth sign pointing to the seventh sign: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The seventh sign is a body that is also the substance. It is the New Jerusalem coming down, the Kingdom at hand: Heaven. So how do we get there? “How are we going to feed the Sheep?” Satan asks, “How are you going to feed the sheep?” Jesus asks, “How are WE going to feed the sheep?” And I think He has a twinkle in His eye as He asks it. If we read the sign, it seems to point to at least four things. 1) Give all that you’ve got. The little boy didn’t just give 10% of his five loaves and two fish; he gave all of it. But what do you give if you’ve got nothing. For at least a moment, I think my friends Tim, Bruce, and Jim felt like they had nothing to give. 2) When you’ve got nothing to give, give your “nothing.” I suspect that this is what Philip was unprepared to give. It’s often easier to share your something than your “nothing,” your strength than your weakness, your poverty than your wealth. John is pointing out that this was shared poverty. Barley bread was the bread of the poor, and the little fish [opsarion] would’ve basically been sardines. It was a child who gave his lunch, which Jesus turned into the great banquet. Have you been to a party where everyone shares their strength? My guess is that it wasn’t much of a party. Have you been to a party where everyone boasts of their weaknesses? Years ago, five of us had one toilet in one little bathroom. Just before moving into our new house with three toilets and five sinks, I remember sitting on the throne with one child on one knee and one on the other knee and the third playing at my feet, while Susan put on her makeup at the sink. Suddenly it hit me: “I’m really going to miss this place.” It was an abundance of shared poverty. An A.A. meeting is an abundance of shared poverty. A real church is an abundance of shared poverty. Years ago, I was leading a 10th grade boys discipleship group. It was going nowhere. It was dead, until Brian, the quiet kid who I thought was never listening, said, “Sometimes I think about killing myself.” He just gave it; he didn’t manipulate us with it; he just confessed it. And soon, everyone was sharing their poverty. We all came to life, as if the blood were flowing from Brian into those boys and threw them to me and all back to Brian, and we became a body... a living, happy body. It's a bit of a shock, but even though Jesus hates sin, He finds confessed sin profoundly attractive. All sin is a lack of Faith, but with Grace He creates Faith in our place of shame. He’s the Bridegroom, and we are His Bride, that is, His Body. Life itself is the abundance of shared poverty. “I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses that the power of Christ would rest on me,” wrote Paul. And he listed his weaknesses, including, “my daily anxiety for all the churches.” That’s sin; it’s a weakness. But confessed to us, it’s the strength of Christ. Every member in a body is joined at a point of weakness that becomes that body’s strength: the abundance of shared poverty. 3) Give your nothing (your poverty) to Jesus. If the little boy had just given his lunch to the crowd because he felt obligated to do so, I doubt there would have been a banquet. A mere person cannot help you, and, if you think they can, you’ll bleed them dry. But Christ in your neighbor can. In those who boast in their strength, He’s buried deep in fig leaves and fear; but for those who’ve learned to trust grace, He’s close to the surface and may have become a fountain. I remember Bruce laughing with bag ladies and winos in the park; it was a banquet of Grace. I think he spoke from decades of pain and his own poverty of spirit. But I also remember Bruce speaking to me about time management seminars that he hoped to market to successful business leaders. My impression: Bruce’s own strength could feed no one. With Bruce’s poverty, Jesus fed thousands, and He still is. His Ministry is still running: It’s called “Christ’s Body Ministries.” 4) Jesus is the abundance of shared poverty. Jesus is the 7th sign that is the substance. He is the temple built in three days. At the tree in the garden, the eschatos Adam is torn into billions of pieces, and on the third day He rises in all of us, as the Tree of Knowledge becomes the Tree of Life and we become one as He is one: The abundance of shared poverty. We will discover that unlike the other Gospels, John does not record the words of institution at the Last Supper. It’s not because he doesn’t believe that the Eucharist happened, but that he believes it’s literally happening all the time. “I am the bread,” Jesus tells us in John 6. In John 13:26 at the Last Supper, Jesus actually dips a piece of broken bread in the cup and gives it to Judas . . . who takes it. Then, satan enters Judas. And it is night. I suspect that John is saying that even if “the last and least of these, his brothers” is going to “hell,” Jesus is going there with them and in them, even as a piece of broken bread. In John 6, Jesus has all twelve pick up the broken bread that none would be “lost” (also translated “destroyed,” and “perished”). Jesus came to seek and to save the “lost.” He accomplishes that for which He was sent. When people ask about suicide, I try to say, “It won’t work. You can’t kill your ‘self’ with yourself. And, actually, it sounds like you’re already dead. Only by faith (trust) do we pass from death to life; faith is the death of death. Suicide won’t work. But how much better it would be to find someone else who feels alone and feel alone together, to find another who’s lost and so be found together, or to find another who’s sad and so be sad together? The man of sorrows might just turn it all into a banquet of joy, even here and even now. Suicide won’t work, but that doesn’t mean that Jesus won’t work. In fact, He descends into ‘hell’ and gathers every fragment that none would be lost.” At Jim’s funeral, I asked, “How do I know that one day I won’t do the same?” I answered, “I don’t. But my hope is not in what I know (knowledge); my hope is the One who knows me and will not leave me nor forsake me. He’s the Resurrection and the Life; He’s the broken fragment in the field that is me; He’s the Promised Seed in me.” Jesus did say to Peter, “Feed my sheep.” But do you remember when He said it? He said it on the shore of the Sea, after He’d been raised from the dead and Peter had been sifted like wheat by Satan. He said it when Peter knew that he had just denied his Lord three times. He said it right after Peter had been fishing naked all night long and caught nothing: “Now, Peter, feed my sheep.” He said it when Peter knew that he had nothing to give, and so Jesus gave everything through Peter. On this Rock, this Peter, he builds His church. He says it to us when we see that we took His life on the tree, which is when and where He gives his life to the world... and gives it even through us. That’s when He says, “Now (when you have “nothing” to give), give everything, give me; let’s feed my sheep.” Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. . . and you. That’s the infinite abundance of shared poverty.

In John 5, at the Pool of Bethesda (meaning “House of Mercy”), Jesus heals one “invalid” among “a multitude of invalids,” all competing for Mercy — that is Unconditional Love. Imagine if you were one of the other invalids: You might ask, “Is God some sort of Monster?” “The Jews” — as John, the Jew, calls them — get angry, for this happened on the Sabbath. And we wonder: “Are they emotional invalids or maybe monsters?” Jesus then finds the invalid, now healed and walking in the old stone temple, and tells him to stop sinning. And He tells the Jews, “My Father has been working until now and I am working.” And they sought “all the more to kill him” because he referred to God as his own Father. It seems that they were all invalids competing for Unconditional Love, Daddy Love. Well, if God only heals some, He does seem to be rather mean, doesn’t He? And if God only saves some, blessing them with endless bliss, while damning others to endless conscious torment, doesn’t that make Him something of a monster? This is the sixth line of “The Statement of Faith” for The National Association of Evangelicals: “We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost; they that are saved unto the resurrection of life and they that are lost unto the resurrection of damnation.” It’s a bit strange on the face of it, for it seems to be a confession of faith in the inability of, or lack of desire to, seek and save “the Lost” on the part of Jesus, who came “to seek and to save the lost.” And yet, they get this language from what Jesus says to these folks in the temple in John 5:29, according to the translators of the King James version of the Bible in 1611. “All that are in the graves shall hear his voice and come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation.” About half of the institutional church would argue that this is God’s free choice. And most of the other half would argue that this is our free choice. But either way, it would seem that God is something of a monster — endless bliss for some and endless torture for others. We watched a video of a man turning into a beast, and I said, “Imagine if that man was your father.” I’m not a healthcare professional, but I think it’s safe to say that if you only suspected that your father was a werewolf, that he had two natures, it would have a profound effect upon your daily life. You might appear to be very obedient, respectful, well-adjusted, and compliant. And yet, your heart would be emotionally isolated, trapped within a prison of fear, and unable to love. In the 2nd century, Marcion the heretic taught that the God of the Old Testament was different than that God of the New. In the 4th century, Augustine taught that God was Mercy and not Mercy, which he defined as “Justice.” In 20th century America, it became common to portray God the Father as having to kill God the Son in order to feel better about you... because God the Son is merciful, and God the Father is Just (not merciful). If you find yourself competing for Mercy, worried that God might be two instead of One, wondering if He might just be a monster or if you, a little child, had the power to turn him into a monster... you need more than conventional therapy, self-help books, practical application points, rules, or more law; you need the Gospel. In John 5:19, in the old stone temple, surrounded by spiritual invalids all competing for unconditional love, Jesus preaches the Gospel. “The Son can do nothing of himself, but only what he sees the Father doing.” Could the Son deliver himself up for crucifixion if the Father did not deliver himself up for Crucifixion? Could God the Son “will” what God the Father does not will? I don’t think so. But once in a garden, He did pray, “Not as I will, but as you will.” Perhaps He is Good will having descended into my bad will and willing what I cannot. Perhaps He actually is my righteousness. He continues, John 5:21, “For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life (That must be his judgment... Dead things don’t make judgments), so also the son gives life to whom he will. For the Father judges no one but gives all [the] judgment to the son.” “All judgment” — That’s all decisions, all choices; that’s running the universe. We like to think we have “free will” because we can move our own bag of dust, our body. But imagine if you had “free will” like God has “free will”! All creation is his bag of dust, like his body. If God the Father freely wills to give his free will to his Son, He’s hardly a stingy, self-centered father. And now listen to God the Son: “The Spirit of Truth will glorify me, for he will take what is mine (all judgment, Free Will) and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine” (John 16:14-15). Like Father, like Son, Like You, You are predestined for an entirely free will, God’s will, Love. . . and “all things with Him.” John 5:24, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life [The life of the age]. He does not come into judgment...” But what is Judgment if God and Jesus don’t judge? In John 8, Jesus says “I judge no one. Yet if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge but I and the Father who sent me (That sounds like a communion of non-judgment that is “the Judgment”)...when you have lifted up the Son of Man, you will see that I Am” How could I Am that I Am “make” judgments? We make judgments in space and time. Anytime He seems to make a judgment, it’s the manifestation of the Judgment that has always been made. “This is the Judgment,” said Jesus in John 3, “The LIGHT.” “NOW is the Judgment,” said Jesus in John 12. LIGHT is eternal (A photon doesn’t experience the passage of time.) And NOW is the point in which eternity touches time, and we make judgments, or, I should say, the Eternal Judgment of God makes us. “God is Light” and “Jesus is the Light of the World,” writes John in 1 John. Jesus is the Judgment of God. John 5:24, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment but has passed from death [in] to [the] life.” If you believe, you confess that you were dead (dead things have very bad judgment.) And if you don’t believe, you are dead and trapped in Hades, for dead things can’t do anything until something is done to them. John 5:25-27, “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear (That is, the dead) will live. (That’s God’s Judgment: The dead will live. It’s the second time He’s said it). For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority [poiein: to do] judgment, because he is the Son of Man.” God is his Father. Man (that’s us) is his mother. He is faith in our faithlessness, Hope in our hopelessness, Love in our lovelessness, Righteousness in our unrighteousness, Grace in our sin, Good Judgment born out of our bad judgment, and so, saving us from our invalid selves. John 5:28-29, “Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good [in] to the resurrection of life, and those who have [practiced] evil [in] to the resurrection of judgment.” “Those who have done good”: They resurrect into Life. Why? Because they have already believed, which means they’ve already been judged. To believe is to lose your life and find it in Jesus. “Those who have practiced evil”: They resurrect into Judgment. And what is the Judgment? Well, He just preached it. The dead will live. It’s the death of death which is The Life. Jesus is The Life. “I know that my Father’s commandment is eternal life,” said Jesus, the Life (John 12:50). John 5:29 is perhaps the most hopeful verse in all the Bible. Nobody gets away with anything: We must all die with Christ. And nobody misses out on anything: We must all live in Christ with God. And nobody is exactly like anybody else, for God is writing the story of His Mercy into the unique disobedience of each one of us, his vessels, his children. John 5:29 is perhaps the most hopeful verse in all the Bible, and yet when the translators of the King James Version translated the last word of John 5:29, they just changed the word “Judgment” (krisis in Greek) into “Damnation” (katakrisis in Greek). And institutions, like the National Association of Evangelicals, major seminaries, and denominations, entirely capable of understanding the Greek, have not corrected this obvious mistranslation, but instead have required conscription to this statement of faith in God’s inability, or lack of desire, to save. And so we must ask, “Why would we do such a thing?” Perhaps we are the monsters? Maybe God is not two, but one? “Hear, O Israel the Lord our God, the Lord is One.” That’s the command. “And you will Love...” That’s the Promise. Perhaps God is not two, but one. And each of us is not one, but two — a false self (an in-valid self), that listens to the father of lies and so thinks it is its own creator … and a true self, that knows he or she is the creation of God, “our Father.” Don’t listen to the dragon, for he would turn you into a monster (a man trapped in a beast). Believe the Gospel. He is the Judgment of God.