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Life Around "The Fire"
Life Around "The Fire"
A Unique Spin On How To Take Care Of Difficult Problems
Freedom begins when accusations fall silent. In this powerful exploration of Jesus' encounter with the woman caught in adultery, we uncover a profound demonstration of "binding and loosing" that goes far beyond religious formulas or magical thinking.
What happens when we witness Jesus confronted with a woman trapped by shame, facing death under religious law? Rather than simply pronouncing forgiveness, Jesus first creates space by silencing her accusers. This tactical move—binding the voices of condemnation before speaking freedom—reveals the true nature of spiritual authority. Jesus doesn't just say the right words; he takes decisive action that transforms the entire situation.
Drawing from this remarkable story in John 8, we discover how binding and loosing represents our privilege and responsibility as believers. The kingdom breaks into reality not through empty declarations but through the powerful combination of words and works. Like ironing a wrinkled shirt requires both identifying the problem and taking out the iron, spiritual transformation demands both declaration and demonstration.
As we examine how Jesus quieted the condemning voices before speaking freedom to the woman, we find a paradigm for our own spiritual authority. The accusations that drive destructive behaviors must first be silenced so people can hear the liberating voice saying, "Go and sin no more." This isn't a burden but an empowering reality—you're now free not to sin.
Ready to move beyond formulas to experience the true power of Heaven manifesting on Earth? Let this message reshape how you understand your role in making God's invisible Kingdom visible. Share your thoughts or questions with us at lifeonthefire@gmail.com or visit our website at lifeonthefire.com.
Loving Yeshua/Jesus, Loving people... Come as you are and you will be loved!
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Shalom to you and your home.
Recently I was caught in adultery and it happens to be one of my favorite stories in the Scriptures for a variety of reasons. But the angle that I'm going to be taking today concerning this particular passage of Scripture and what's being drawn from it might initially sound a little bit new to some of you. But just bear with me for a minute and I think by the time we're all said and done, you'll see what I'm talking about. By the time we're all said and done, you'll see what I'm talking about Again in John chapter 8,. Let me read the story In John chapter 8,. It's 11 verses. John 8, verses 1 through 11. This is in the New Living Translation. John writes Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, but early the next morning he was back again at the temple.
Speaker 1:A crowd soon gathered and he sat down and taught them. As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd, teacher. They said to Jesus this woman was caught in the act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say? They were trying to trap him into saying something that they could use against him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer. So he stood up again and said all right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone. Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust. When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. Then Jesus stood up and said to the woman where are your accusers? Didn't even one of them condemn you? No, lord, she said. And Jesus said neither do I Go and sin no more. Now, there are so many rich lessons to be drawn from that particular passage of Scripture and there are so many things that we can appreciate Jesus doing that we could spend hours alone on that particular passage, right there On that particular passage. We could spend hours unfolding what's there, and still there'd be more.
Speaker 1:But the angle that I want to present this morning concerns, or is concerning, this whole aspect of binding and loosing. Binding and loosing Because if you've been around for any length of time, regardless of the circle that you you travel in, concerning your fellowship, if you're a Christian, the church group that you're a part of. You've come across the term binding and loosing and you've heard it presented in a variety of different ways. Some have been good, I'm sure, and some of them have been not so good. Some of them like it's almost like us having God magic or something that we just arbitrarily can go about turning things off and turning things on and God is at our whim or the powers of heaven are at our disposal and say bye, or it's so rigid that nothing gets done. We don't even try to do anything about it, we just look at it and study it again and talk about it some more because we're kind of afraid to do anything about it or with it. Maybe you're just content relegating it to what took place then, and that terminology can stay right there in the pages of the Bible binding and loosing.
Speaker 1:However, binding and loosing is part of the privilege and the responsibility that's been given to the body of Christ, and it's a means by which we are able to join together with heaven, the power of God coming from heaven influencing earth. We become a conduit through which that power is manifest on earth, where we are able to participate together with God in seeing his plan and his purposes unfold on planet Earth. Amazing that we have the privilege and the responsibility, as believers in Jesus, under his lordship, under him being head and we being the body under his lordship we have the privilege and the responsibility to participate in his nature and see the things of his kingdom demonstrated to us and through us from heaven onto earth. In fact, it's what Jesus, part of what Jesus taught in his teaching concerning prayer. He said when you pray, pray like this your kingdom come God, your kingdom, your kingdom come God. Your kingdom, your kingdom come. Your good pleasure, your plan, your purpose, your will be done in earth or on earth, as it is in heaven, as it is in heaven, let heaven be manifest on earth. In fact, that is the original purpose for earth being created that we would colonize earth with the kingdom of God, that the invisible would become visible, the, the kingdom of God, that the invisible would become visible, the invisible kingdom of God would be made visible on planet Earth. And so we have that privilege and that responsibility.
Speaker 1:In fact, jesus said that specifically to Peter. We have that privilege and that responsibility. In fact, jesus said that specifically to Peter at Caesarea, philippi, when he told Peter, after Peter declared that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, by virtue of Peter being infused with wisdom from the Spirit of God, with the Word of God, with the heart of the Father coming through Peter. Jesus, saying Flesh and blood, didn't reveal that to you, peter. That came by virtue of my Father, by his Spirit. No one could say that except that way, and no one does. No one does declare that Jesus, yeshua is Christ, he's the Messiah, he's the Savior, he's the Promised One by God, our Redeemer, the Holy One, god, the Son, that's Him, he's the One.
Speaker 1:And Jesus said nobody could tell you that and convince you of that, because people have a variety of opinions of who I am. But then he goes, by virtue of what you said, upon that declaration, upon that rock, upon that declaration that comes from you, a little pebble I'm going going to on this big mountain, I'm going to build my church, my people, my calm out ones, and the gates of hell will not prevail against my people, my church moving forward. And then he said whatsoever you bind, my people, my church moving forward. And then he said whatsoever you bind on earth will have already been bound in heaven and whatsoever you loose on earth will have already been loosed in heaven. And then we have a variety of things that go on after him saying that, and many of us have been at the mercy of, oftentimes, some unfortunately shallow or erroneous teaching concerning what Jesus was talking about.
Speaker 1:And I'm not going to go into all the different heresies or problems that have been presented with that heresies or problems that have been presented with that because I want to highlight what Jesus was talking about. You know, if we're going to identify the counterfeit, it's not by studying more counterfeit things. If you're going to find a true $20 bill, you don't study counterfeit $20 bills, you study a true $20 bill. Then you can spot the counterfeits. And so we're looking to highlight what it was that Jesus was saying. But I've found that oftentimes things are learned best not so much by a demonstration or a proclamation of words, I should say by just proclaiming words, saying things, but by a demonstration of what's being said. And binding and loosing is best portrayed, in my opinion, in this particular passage of the Scripture of the Scriptures, because Jesus not only said something, he did something Kind of like.
Speaker 1:The other day I was looking at a few of my shirts and I noticed that one of them needed to be ironed and you know I could have just left it alone, but it you know it needed to be ironed. So I got it out and I said a few things about ironing the shirt and then I ironed it. I both said something and I did something. Let me say that again I both said something about the shirt and then I did something about the shirt. It's not enough to just say something about ironing a shirt. It's not just enough for us to say I iron you and then we don't get. I iron you and then we don't get the iron out and iron. It same thing goes with binding and loosing. It's not enough for us to just say some words like a magic spell and say I bind this and expect it to be done, without us engaging in some sort of action point to have the connection secured and the thing done. Let me illustrate further, especially with this particular passage of Scripture as a reference point.
Speaker 1:This woman was legitimately caught in the act of adultery, and adultery of and by itself is just devastating to relationships surrounding the act of adultery. It's not just a person compromising their own morals. It affects other people. It affects husbands, it affects wives who've been cheated on, children who get caught in the crossfire, families split, split just relationships being really damaged as a result of adultery, and that's why it's so heinous. Morally it's a compromise, but it just relationally. It's devastating to your own psyche, but also to the relationships around our lives.
Speaker 1:And so this woman was caught in adultery, and the law did say stone her, get rid of that, get rid of not just the adulterer, but get rid of the adulterer or adulteress. Strict, get rid of it. And so these people, though, brought the woman, not because they were so concerned about the law, they just didn't like the fact that Jesus was more popular than they were and that what he was doing was more effective than what they had been doing, and the fact that, periodically, he would call them out when other people were afraid to call them out. He would call them out and call them for who they were. Sometimes he'd call them whitewashed tombs, meaning you look good on the outside, but inside you're dead man, you got dead bones, you're dead and you're polluting other people. A brood of vipers. Yeah, it's a very strong thing to say about those who were trying to do things their own way in pleasing God or pleasing themselves and telling other people to do it the same way, even though it wasn't working.
Speaker 1:And so Jesus was demonstrating to people the way of salvation and he was showing them what the kingdom of God was really like and really all about. And people were being transformed and they were following Jesus in mass, where some of these scribes and Pharisees had a hard time getting a couple hundred people together. Jesus was getting thousands of people following him for days Just to hear him, maybe just to hear a few things coming through the breeze, because they could hear him out from the distance, the word of the Lord just penetrating the heart, even a word, even a word coming from him. He would travel miles, healings A demonstration of the kingdom of God. And this woman is being thrown at his feet and the Pharisees wanted to trap him to see what he would say. And he said to them the one that is without sin, throw the first stone. Now, he could have been the one to throw the first stone, jesus. Jesus could have been the one. He was the only one without sin that was there and he could have done it, but he didn't. He waited Because he was demonstrating something. He was demonstrating the power of binding and loosing. He was demonstrating the power of the kingdom. He was demonstrating being a conduit for the kingdom of God to be manifest on earth and for us to see the effect of it. For them to see it, but for us to see the effect of it. For them to see it, but for us to see it now. For them to see it then and us to see it now, and for us to be inspired to be part of that, to be like him and to function the same way, where we not just say things, but we say and do things.
Speaker 1:Jesus didn't just say for the power that he caused that woman to be an adulteress. He didn't just say I bind you in the name of Jesus, his own name right, you get what I'm saying. I bind you in the name of my father. He didn't do that. Instead, what he said was he didn't do that. Instead, what he said was the one who's without sin casts the first stone and by virtue of him taking a stand and saying that word, it bound the accusers. The shame, the guilt and the fear that had had that woman, together with the powers of darkness in its grip, was bound by the sheer statement and actions of Jesus. The shirt was being ironed, the sin was being dealt with in the woman's life, the iron was out and she was going to be set free. But the first thing that was done was a binding. You have to bind the problem in order to loose someone from the problem. The problem was bound because it was accusations.
Speaker 1:Accusations can drive us crazy. Accusations can motivate us to do some very bizarre things, because we want some sort of relief, some sort of pleasure of relief, some sort of pleasure, and so we try to find it in a variety of different ways. And this woman tried to find pleasure in adultery because she had been accused of things all of her life. She had been in a legalistic society all of her life. She was in a pressure cooker from birth, and Jesus closed the mouth of that pressure cooker so that she could be free. Sometimes we need things quieted before we can realize, quieted before we can realize that we're not being bound by them, by their accusations, anymore.
Speaker 1:Jesus said where are your accusers? She goes there aren't any. To her surprise. To her surprise, there were no. Sometimes being delivered from things is a surprise. She was surprised. I'm sure she was cowering, getting ready to get hit with the first stone. Except she didn't get hit with the first stone, she got hit with the word of God, and the word of God set her free. Truth set her free. There were no accusers capable of doing that, and Jesus said I don't either. That was his action. His action was that he was not going to take action, but sometimes we need to do things in order to get the shirt ironed. Jesus quieted the crowd and then didn't throw the first stone. That was the iron that he brought out to deal with the sin, because it freed her. Love freed her. It wasn't the accusations, it wasn't her being browbeaten back into a place of submission and being used as an example, a public display of what he shouldn't be doing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it happened. Yeah, it was the law, but there was a reason behind that that was deeper and Jesus was getting to what that was, and that was this it brought something to the surface, and that's what the law does. Law brings sin to the surface. It doesn't deal with it. It brings it to the surface and then it can be dealt with, and Jesus dealt with it by telling the woman I don't accuse you either, you're forgiven. What, what? You're forgiven and we have been given that power. We've actually been given that power to do that. We can actually say to someone, after having the powers quieted that have been holding them, binding them, tormenting them, oppressing them, holding them captive, quieting them and Quieting them and then telling them that they're forgiven and then Freeing them Verbally and also experientially by our actions, restoring them into a place of right fellowship.
Speaker 1:She walked away free from sin and free to sin no more. He didn't say well, you better not sin anymore. He said go and sin no more, meaning you're free not to sin, you don't have to do that anymore. Big difference. But he did more than say a magical spell or speech or use magical words, if you will. He both spoke and demonstrated word and works.
Speaker 1:The word and the works are the channel through which the kingdom of God is manifest and we have been given the privilege and the responsibility to be those who bind and loose, and sometimes binding is literally setting someone free from the accusations by quieting the accusations, then free from the accusations. By quieting the accusations, then we can actually hear the word at declaring us free. What good would it do to open up the prison door and tell the prisoner that the war is over, they're no longer prisoners, the prison doors are open, you're free, and they stay in the prison because that's what they're accustomed to. They have a hard time believing anything different because they can't hear anything different, and sometimes we need to quiet the other condemning voices that we can hear the voice that says go, be free, be free. Now.
Speaker 1:There's a lot more that goes into the binding and loosing aspect of us and the privilege and responsibility that we have concerning that power given to us as a church, but this particular story drove home something so rich and meaningful and practical to me, because it's the world that we live in, with so many voices holding people down, that we can't hear the voice that says I don't condemn you either. Go and sin no more. Let's pray, father. God, I ask that you would you take my attempt at expressing this truth and that you'd use it the areas in which I just didn't have the words. Lord, I ask that you would make up the difference and that you would bring the words into each of our hearts and minds and teach us what it means to be those who have the privilege and responsibility of binding and loosing, so that we can function as citizens of your kingdom, with the power and the authority that you've given to us, and I ask these things in the name of Jesus standing here in Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:I say Amen, amen, amen, amen. All right, folks, I love you. If you have any thoughts, questions, concerns, please feel free to drop us a line at liferontthefire, at gmailcom, or type in liferontthefire and look us up on the web. We would love to hear from you. In the meantime, god bless you. Adios amigos.