The Words of Jesus Jn.8:17 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO

What are we to do with the words of Jesus in the gospel of John?  We are to:

Hear his words – Jn 8:47 – not everyone who hears the words of Jesus truly “hears” the words.  Jesus said, “If any man hath ears to hear, let him hear,” [Mk 4:23].  In Matt 13:13-16, Jesus explained that some hearing hear not because their ears are dull of hearing.  So, when someone is speaking the words of Jesus, like I am right now, you need to listen.  You need to attend to what is being said.

Receive and believe his words – Jn 12:47-48 because they are God’s words Jn 14:10, 24.  In other words, it is one thing to hear the words of Jesus.  It is another thing to receive them and believe them.  They won’t work in your life unless you do [1 Thes 2:13].  The transforming work of the words of God takes place on the inside of you.  As Jesus told the hypocritical Pharisees, it doesn’t do any good to change your outward appearance if your inside is corrupt.  You need to change from the inside out.  Receiving and believing the words of Jesus is what accomplishes this transformation.

Keep his words – Jn 14:23, Jn 17:6 you must obey the words you hear, receive and believe.  The trouble comes when you know what to do and refuse to do it.  There is no amount of justification that can compensate for disobedience.  Like Samuel told Saul, “… to obey is better than sacrifice,” [1 Sam 15:22].

Be clean by his words – Jn 15:3 this is the work of sanctification [Jn 17:17].  We are defiled by our thoughts and by the world every single day.  The cleansing agent that the Lord gave us to deal with the filth is the word of God.  In other words, just getting in your Bible and reading everyday has a cleansing effect.  And God loves a clean vessel.

Remember his words – Jn 15:20 memorizing scripture does several good things for you.  It gives you an arsenal with which God can speak to you throughout the day.  People want to know God’s direction for their lives.  His direction is found in his words [Ps 119:105].  So, the more scripture that you memorize, the more words the Lord can bring to your remembrance to guide you.  Also, memorizing scripture gives you an arsenal of verses you can use to quote to others who must hear a word from the Lord.  Which brings us to the last point.

Preach his words – Jn 17:20 we cannot keep the words of Jesus to ourselves.  We must tell others what he said so that they can come to Jesus and be saved.  The beauty of this is that we can rely upon the Holy Spirit to bring to our remembrance what we have memorized [Jn 14:26] so that we can preach the exact words of Jesus that he wants us to speak.  People are saved by believing the words of God after they hear them.  So, we must be the preachers.

Conclusion: These are some simple things that we must do with the words of Jesus.