Echoes from Above
===
[00:00:00] This is Steve from the Rebuilding Faith Online community. I joined this community because like many, I found myself increasingly disillusioned with the traditional church. All too often, their teaching seemed to be at odds with what I believe to be Jesus's message of unconditional love. I was looking for a safe place I could learn and grow in my faith journey along with others on a similar journey, a place where I could freely explore questions, doubts, and different perspectives without judgment.
I love the inspirational podcast and insightful comments from fellow community members. My favorite has been the book Reading Challenges. I love exploring contemporary authors alongside my fellow community members and realizing I'm not alone. I feel closer to Jesus than I have in a long time.
jeremy_2_09-04-2025_132842: Hey friends. Welcome to another episode of Rebuilding Faith.
These are 10 minute Bible messages for people with questions and doubts. Recently I posted something on social media that somehow attracted the ire of a whole bunch of [00:01:00] conservative Christians, and I got a bunch of people disagreeing with me.
In fact, on this one post alone, as of this recording, there are over 900 comments and I always have a hard time knowing where the line is, where I respond to someone, where I don't, how do I respond? I had someone post something kind of simple. They said, count me out. To which I replied, I never counted you in, you're opting out of something that you are not invited to, but thank you for letting me know that you're not interested.
Or, I had one person look up my profile and quote something from my profile. His comment said this, I help people rebuild their faith after it breaks, he's quoting me. And then he added oof, Satan's best recruiter. So I looked up his profile and he had a phrase there about trying to make people's day with laughter.
So I responded, is this you [00:02:00] quote, trying to make my day with laughter. And I never heard a response from him. I have these interactions and every now and then I'll have a Christian come on and they'll clutch their pearls and they'll say something like, I don't think that you should be responding like this.
Or This doesn't look very Jesus like I wanna suggest today that I think you can stand up to the craziness in the world. You can stand up to things that are bogus and. Still look like Jesus. In fact, I wanna show you a passage today, one of many where Jesus gets a little salty, and we're gonna see how Jesus talked to people that he disagreed with in his day.
This is John at chapter eight. We're gonna pick up in verse 21. Later, Jesus said to them again, I am going away. You will search for me, but will die in your sin. You cannot come where I'm going. The people ask, is he planning to commit suicide? What does he mean? You cannot come where I am going and Jesus continued.
You are from below. I am [00:03:00] from above. You belong to this world. I do not. That is why I said that you will die in your sins for unless you believe that I am who I claim to be. You will die. In your sins. Jesus is playing on words here in chapter seven, we saw that a lot of these religious leaders mocked Jesus for being from Galilee.
Like that was one of the ways that they insulted him. This guy can't be the Messiah. He's from Galilee. Now, topographically. Galilee is a lower region than Jerusalem. And so whenever you see Jesus going up to Jerusalem, it literally will use the idea. He went up to Jerusalem, not just went to, but went up to, 'cause Jerusalem was higher.
Topographically, you had to go up to Jerusalem if you are coming from Galilee. Jesus reverses it here and says, I am from above. You are from below. And you can imagine, there's a lot behind that statement where [00:04:00] he's saying, you're judging me for being from Galilee.
And you think that you represent God up here, but it's the other way around. And he's insulting them through this. He's basically calling out these religious leaders and saying, you guys are unfit to lead. You're not able to lead the people. You're not able to give people what they actually need.
This is why I laugh whenever someone says to me, well, pastor, we want you to just preach Jesus. Just preach Jesus. And what they're saying is preach a non-offensive version of the gospel that just makes everybody feel good. But I always want to be like, which part of Jesus do you want me to preach? Like when Jesus is calling people out, when he's arguing with the people in power in his day, you want me to preach that story of Jesus?
I mean, this reminds me of our country right now. When I look at the leaders that we have, when I look at decisions that are being made right now, what sane person doesn't argue against that and say, whoa, whoa, whoa. This is crazy. In fact, I saw someone on social media say it like [00:05:00] this, our government is basically a lot of compromised people blackmailing each other.
And I thought that describes it. Like you wonder what's going on with all of this. It doesn't make any sense. And I suspect if Jesus we're here, he'd be calling it out too, saying, whoa, what's going on here? And he called it out. In his day and then get to verse 25, who are you? They demanded Jesus replied, the one I have always claimed to be, which again, now he's like answering their questions with like riddles.
I mean, this is just fun. I love this exchange. Who are you?
How are you? No one of consequence, I must know, get used to disappointment. Okay.
jeremy_2_09-04-2025_132842: Now John is showing the ignorance of these leaders, that these are the people that claim to know it all, that claim to be in the know. And John is pointing out. They don't understand who Jesus [00:06:00] is. So they're directly asking after all they've seen, after all they've heard, who are you?
Because Jesus doesn't fit into any box that they're trying to fit him in. Lemme get to verse 26. Jesus says, I have much to say to you and much to condemn, but I won't for, I say only what I have heard from the one who sent me, and he is completely truthful, but they still didn't understand that he was talking about his father.
So Jesus said, when you have lifted up the son of man on the cross, then you'll understand that I am he. I do nothing on my own, but say only what the Father taught me. And the one who sent me is with me. He has not deserted me for, I always do what pleases him. And then many who heard him say these things believed in him.
So these religious leaders think that Jesus has gone off the rails. Why else would he not fall in line with them and with this system and play along by [00:07:00] these rules? But Jesus is showing them that he's in perfect unity with God the Father, as he's doing what he's doing. And then in verse 30, we find out people are starting to follow him.
They're watching Jesus stand up to the norms of their day, the things that people have taken for granted. And they're saying, oh, he's offering something better. Which is a role that we get to play today as well. When we challenge the norms that are unhealthy, the norms that are tearing people down, and we say, no, it doesn't have to be like this.
And so as people are watching Jesus do this, John says that more and more people are believing in him. They finally have seen someone willing to tackle the things that are going wrong around them. Now I wanna close with one more phrase that Jesus uses here because he's going back to his image of inverting the high and the low.
He says that he will be lifted up on the cross. It's another way of [00:08:00] showing how he is from above. Now to reference being lifted up on the cross would obviously reference a punishment. If you are gonna be crucified, it's because you did something wrong or you were rejected. And so you can imagine them listening to him say, I'm going to be lifted up on the cross thinking, oh, so you're gonna be rejected.
But he follows that with this idea In verse 29, the one who sent me is with me. He has not deserted me. This is such a powerful idea, and we'll get to this more when we talk about the actual crucifixion, but I love this illustration. I've got, this, cross hanging on my wall. It's called the Trinity Cross.
And it depicts all of the trinity on the cross. So you've got Jesus hanging on the cross as you'd expect, but then this cross depicts behind Jesus God, the Father holding Jesus' hands, on the cross. And then above God the Father. You have, the dove, which represents the [00:09:00] Holy Spirit. And so all three persons of the Trinity.
Are represented in this one moment, and I love this image because when we think about Jesus as we saw last week, we're not thinking about Jesus in contrast to God the Father, or in contrast to what the spirit's doing today. It's all happening in unity. And so when we understand who Jesus is, we need to make sure we're seeing all of the unity of God together displayed in the person of Jesus.
And that's what keeps us from really bad theologies we saw last week, but also gives us the most beautiful image of who Jesus is. And I hope that's what you have in your mind when you think about Jesus, when you talk to Jesus and when you experience Jesus today. I'll see you next week on Rebuilding Faith.
