text: There’s None So Deaf…!
  Father, as I prepare to read today’s passage, help me to be open and able to hear and understand what Jesus is saying.
  Read John 8:42–47
  42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. 43 Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. 44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! 46 Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? 47 Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”
  New International Version (NIV)
  Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
  Are your ears open to what Jesus is trying to say to you?Jesus doesn’t mince his words. His criticism of the Jews who supposedly follow him becomes even stronger. Why do you think he begins with a reminder of where he has come from and who has sent him (42)?
  There’s a saying that “There’s none so deaf as those who won’t hear.” It’s used to describe someone who ignores advice or who won’t believe what they’re told. It sums up perfectly the people Jesus is talking to (43). What reason does Jesus give in verse 44 for their inability to hear him?
  He is clear in what he says about who these people belong to. Because they refuse to believe the truth of Jesus’ message, their father is the devil (44). It is his desires they carry out. There is
  no area of grey. They were either for or against Jesus. It’s because they were against him that they couldn’t believe him. The truth of Jesus and the lies of their father (44) were incompatible.
  Verse 47 is the climax of the passage: those who belong to God hear what God says. These people couldn’t hear what God was saying through Jesus because they didn’t belong to God.
  Does your life say that you are for or against Jesus? Check your actions today and hold them up against God’s standard.
  Pray for someone you know who doesn’t follow Jesus, that he or she may know his truth.
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