Pastor Terence Paraso [00:00:00]:
Hi everybody. Everybody on TV land. Where's the camera by the way? Right here. Hey, hi everybody. Alright. Well, I don't know about you, but I work at a school. Anybody work at a school or have kids? Your life revolves around school. Just put it that way.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:00:21]:
Right? So some of us, we're like, this weekend is the transition weekend. Right? We just finished. Whoo. Yeah. The teachers in the house are like breathing. It was a big push, but I noticed I teach 9th graders at Dreamhouse Ewa Beach Charter School, and it's like everybody is going through an identity crisis. And it's ironic that a public charter school would hire a pastor to be on staff and to become a teacher there to teach them about identity and to use their voice and what their voice means because scripture is when you read scripture out loud, it's like voice. And it was so interesting that they I mean now they want me to come back next year.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:01:01]:
So they're the same thing. It's basically teaching the values that in the Bible and with with allusions to the name of Jesus Christ, but it was so powerful that even though this this year was really difficult for me, it was like lateral promotion, a different career, but the entire freshman class allowed me to lead them to bless our whole school. We held hands and we lifted the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's amazing. So when when the Holy Spirit shows up, when God is involved, amazing things happen. And, I mean I was here the last 2 weeks when Pastor Glenn was talking about the Holy Spirit, which is celebrating the Pentecost and the open door that's always there for us, and the power that talk about a radical change. If you have identity crisis, talk about identity crisis. What just happened? Right? So powerful. And then last week was about promotion.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:02:01]:
Sometimes promotion is like, yay. Awesome. And sometimes promotion is like, oh, God. What are you doing? So much is happening. I don't know how to make sense of anything. And then that leads us into this this summer series, I believe that I get the privileges starting. That series is gonna be titled Who Do You Say That I Am? And the question that Jesus is recorded in all the Gospels asking more of the other 3, then gonna preach I'm gonna be preaching from John, and there's 3 places that shows up. And the question is, who do you say that he is? Because that that hinges upon everything, like literally everything else in our lives.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:02:42]:
How we judge him determines the judging upon ourselves, and how much control do we have of that? How much Anybody freaking out yet? See, I haven't made the decision. It can be stressful. It can be dynamic. It can be so disconcerting and like, what does that mean for what about me? The implications are huge and it's not easy to come to that decision, but we're gonna focus today on the the first of the 7 I ams, and Jesus says in the gospel of John, where he answers the question about who he is, and he gives us the opportunity, every single person the opportunity, to answer that for themselves. So it's open in prayer, and then we'll we'll read these verses together. So Father, we come before You, and we rely upon on you as our bread. You are everything. In other words, it says you are overall, in all, and through all the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit there before the creation, there throughout every single day of our lives before, during and after and beyond forevermore.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:03:49]:
And father, as Jesus revealed to himself to to everyone in the mixed crowds, times maybe can be similar to the mixed crowd that we have here, both online and in our presence here, that hits us differently. So father, may you speak and touch us wherever we are. May your power move to show us exactly who you are, and tell us exactly who we are to you. In the father name of the Holy Son, we pray. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Would you stand with me as we read the first bunch of verses right there, in honor of God's word. Alright.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:04:29]:
Here we go. Ready ego. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me, I will certainly not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, my will will, but the will of him who sent me. This is the will of him who sent me, that of all that he has given me, I lose nothing.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:05:12]:
But raise it up on the last day, For this is the will of my father that everyone who be holds the Son and believes in him will have eternal life and I myself will raise him up on the last day. There we go. Now you may be seated. Powerful stuff. So let me get to where this section of the story comes in as John has had almost his entire life to think about what happened in those three and a half years with Jesus, and to kinda boil it on down together, and to talk to any everybody, because the other gospels are geared for different audiences, Could be strictly for Jewish audience or the Gentile audience and Luke, but for John is like anybody who's willing to listen that the Lord calls to hear the gospel, that's who he's talking to. And so just a little bit of synopsis. So what happens before this very moment when Jesus says these words, if you have your Bibles, you can look there. In the beginning of the chapter, it goes from feeding of the 5,000.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:06:19]:
Everybody knows that story. From from 2 fish and five loaves that this boy, little boy had, and and everyone was just amazingly fed, and and they were left over after that. It was multiplied miraculously, right? So that was supposed to be a witness to who Jesus was, who he said he was. Powerful witness. So that happened, and then that night, Jesus moves on, and he kinda like tells his guys, I'll meet you on the other side of the Sea of Galilee in Capernaum where that's like his headquarters, right? Just go back there and kinda regroup, and then Jesus that night walks on the water. Another amazing miracle that's recorded, in different gospels, but in this case, it's just just walks on the water and they arrived and the crowds catch up to him at this point. And they're like, they were looking for him and they they had this opportunity to find him. His boats arrived, and they got to join him there, and finally we're back again with the people who all caught up with him.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:07:18]:
All people. All the I don't know. I imagine how many people were there, but they caught up with him with the the word spreading of all the crazy things he was doing, the amazing things he was doing. And this is what exactly what he says to them, because he knew why they were there, right? He knew exactly why they were there and for depending who they were and what their need was, it was different. And he confronts them with these verses. He says this, Jesus said, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst. Powerful stuff.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:07:55]:
So if you have a pen or pencil, and you get into your notes, you come to teacher and me. Go ahead and underline or circle all the places where you see the father is involved. I count 1, 2, 3, 4 places is mentioned in the process in these verses. You see, sometimes for some reason, depending who's speaking, if they're not speaking the words of Jesus or directly from the word, sometimes we're taught that you had something to do with it. You and I had something to do with our salvation. And really the only thing we bring is ourselves, and the ability to say, yes or no, depending on the movement of the spirit. And according to these verses, you can fill in the blank with me, our salvation rests solely on the Father's decision. Four places, Jesus is saying, salvation cannot happen as the Father does it.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:09:10]:
It's the Father's will, Father's will, the Father's will. Nothing but the Father's will, okay, to bring us to faith in Christ, not of our will or works. It's the doctrine of election. The doctrine of election, and Jesus himself is saying, teaching us the doctrine of salvation according to him. Exactly the words he was given to us, we get to read translated in English, But the reason why this is so powerful is that even more powerful is because it's written for us in English, but it was translated from the Greek, and Greek is such a precise language. You can only say exactly what you want to mean, and if you wanna change the meaning, you have to change the words and the way you say them. So the way they're crafted and why they're crafted in this order and spoken in this way, it's deliberate and there is no exception. If there is, and if you look throughout this, all these verses, everything's emphatic.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:10:11]:
It is I am and things like all or none, lots of wills, wills, wills. There is no there is no waffling in this. Jesus said, this is this is it. I'm explaining this to you, and those with ears to hear will listen. The second part that's revealed in these verses, in your blanks, the father's election of a person will always lead that person to faith in Christ. This is called the doctrine of irresistible grace. See the grace of God isn't like a nice nice offer. I don't know about you, but for me to have come to the Lord in my own personal faith journey, God had to do some work.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:11:08]:
Not that he's done yet, of course, but just to get me to that point. He had to do such work because flesh cannot accomplish what the spirit wants. It cannot please. Unless God's will and the spirit of God is moving and it's it's your time by God's divine grace, because the grace is what breaks us. I don't know about you, but there's no other way except my my flesh has to be hostilely hostilely broken and defeated in order for me to come to a saving grace, a relationship with Jesus and the father. There is no middle ground. Anybody tried to compromise with God? I got it. If you I'll come to you, but if you do this for me.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:11:56]:
Already premise is wrong. I tried that as a young child. I wanted to see my family radically transformed. I said, God use me, and then I got in his way. It's really what happened until I surrendered myself and I got out of his way. Then I saw things change in my family and he said, now you can do what you're what you're meant to do. And I got your family. You're not leaving them to nobody.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:12:20]:
Hey, I'm God. And I was like, duh, thank you. Sometimes it's our pride. Our pride gets in the way. Just these two things alone is like, what? You mean I had nothing to do with it? No. You had something to do with it. It's your loved that much by God. That's it.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:12:41]:
To be so persistent with you and I to the point of surrendering our flesh, our desires to his for us is radical, and it is not easy, but it has to be done that way and no other way. The third thing that's revealed in these verses, is once God brings a person to faith in Jesus, he or she will never be without God's gracious salvation. Once saved, always saved, and you now we have eternal communion with him. See look what he says here in verse 40. I myself will raise him up on the 1st day. After all these wills, there's one last will statement in the section where he says to the crowd, I myself will raise him up on the last day. Once the process starts and God says, this is your time. I've chosen you this right now in this very moment I've chosen you.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:13:49]:
You know what God's God's rate percentage of success when he moves and calls someone? 100%. And if you're not ready, then you just won't. But there will be another time orchestrated by God because all people will have an opportunity. No one will be without excuse. You will have an opportunity. Hopefully none of us will be like the pharaoh, right? Have 10 plagues come, right? And he have so stubborn, so stubborn. If you look at the 10 plagues looking back, it's reflecting back. It's like the first few, it says, pharaoh hardened his heart, but the last 5 or 6 it says, God hardened his heart.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:14:36]:
It was like in order for God to move, he had to utterly show to everyone how stubborn pharaoh was, and how fleshly he was, and how unwilling he was to submit to God, who even loved him, who could have saved him, but no, the history tells us opposite. He had every single chance. The word says that. So let's move on. You turn your notes over. You're gonna go to verse 47. So Jesus is talking and he first talks to the crowd, everybody in general, and then he focuses in on later on on just the Jews in the crowd, Okay. And there's a reason why, because they start grumbling about him.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:15:28]:
Not at Him, probably afraid, but just like, he's bringing up stuff that's really tough for us, right? And then He speaks directly to His disciples, like it gets more pointed as we go along. So let's let's see it like a fly on the wall with this next section where He says to the crowd. Verse 47. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, so no one may eat of it and and not die. I am the living bread and came down out of heaven.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:16:11]:
If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever, and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. So he starts talking about alluding to something they haven't yet encountered, which we now know is the practice of communion, which we had the other week. But until you're enlightened, this is really disturbing stuff. It sounds like cannibalism. And it says in the scriptures, in these in these very verses, it says that they're like, can He's gonna give us His flesh and His blood? Like that's weird, right? And they find it very difficult to accept. And it's in this point, everything is a narrative of telling the story until Jesus speaks. When Jesus speaks, he's speaking of spiritual things. It's almost like a riddle where he speaks metaphorically, and unless you're enlightened by the Holy Spirit, unless your your ears are open by the spirit and your heart is ready, you'll not understand.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:17:08]:
And in this case, what he's revealing is that you gotta take me all in. There's no halfway. There's no compromise. There's no deals. There's no it's just all or nothing. Either you're saved or you're not. Just like you ladies in this room, like my wife, when she was pregnant, she was either pregnant when she was, and then she was not. Right? There's no in between.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:17:37]:
I'm sort of. No, there's not. You're saved and always saved. Isn't that good news? Because he's still at work in us. Amen. So there's nothing, and you know Romans Romans 838, right? There's nothing. No height nor depth. Nothing.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:17:58]:
The heavens or on earth or under the earth can separate you from the love of God. Once you're locked in by him, you can't blow it. No one else can blow it for you. God will not change his mind and disqualify you. He doesn't make mistakes. You're in. And Jesus says, I will take you up with me when the time comes. That's it.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:18:23]:
That simple. There's nothing more to the gospel than that. It's that simple, but to the unregenerated, the the people who is not their time, it's just like, woah. Not yet. Not yet. And that's okay, because while we were still yet enemies, Paul wrote, he's condescended to save us. He does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Salvation is not of ourselves, not even a little bit.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:18:56]:
I know that popes are pride, but you know, actually that once you accept it, it's like, oh, Right? But in the flesh, we're like, how can it be that easy? I gotta I gotta take some credit for this. No. One day you'll understand, but maybe not yet. That's okay. Just come. Just come, and you one day it'll make sense to you hopefully when you're ready. Okay. Let's move on.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:19:24]:
So he goes on and he's speaking to the crowd, right? And this part he's talking to That section we just read, he's talking to the Jews in the crowd because they really wrestle with that. He can talk about poking them in the religious tradition, and every miracle he did, everything he's saying, everything he's doing is a reflection or fulfillment of everything that they knew before. All of their sacrifices, Jesus is the Passover lamb. Right? All of the feasts are culminated in the person of Christ. Everything culminates in him. It's like a multiple ending being sealed. All these multiple things hanging for them. Everything was being pushed forward, because The sacrificial lamb you had to do every other year.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:20:09]:
So you're saved for another year. You're not judged for the next year. Here comes another year until Jesus came once and for all and fulfilled all that. So no more sacrifice. I don't know about you, but I'm glad because this will be a messy place. It'll be disgusting, a disgusting reminder of the ugliness that we bring as enemies of God before we're saved, and it's such beauty in what God does. So powerful. Okay.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:20:44]:
So let's continue verses 63 and on. Ready? Go. It is the Spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. But there are some of you who do not believe, for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe and who it was that would betray him. As as he was saying, for this reason I have said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted him from the father. Here we go again.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:21:22]:
And he skips over to to the next section, or the last verse it says, and many more many of, his disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. Some of you might be questioning, wait, His disciples left? Okay. You have to understand that at this point there's a crowd. It's a mixed crowd. Already the Jews are like the unregenerated Jews, if they're not willing to let go of their their traditions, even though God is the fullness of all that they all those traditions represent. Now he's talking to these people. Disciples were just the word right here for followers in this situation. That's how the word is used.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:22:09]:
It's not the 12. They they are part of that group because he's gonna turn it he's gonna turn to them in a second, because everyone left him. He's gonna turn to them in a second and he says, are you also gonna leave? See John doesn't record it the same way as the other 3 Gospels, and who do you say that I am? But in this one, Jesus turns to his 12 and says, are you gonna leave also? Talk about a pregnant moment. So powerful. And this reminds me of in the church that I came from, I served, how long was I there? 14 years I was there. We used to put on this play approaching Easter, during Easter week called the Last Supper, And we would portray the 12 disciples, right, at that time, and then coming to the Passover meal, and each one of us, there's a spotlight that was we freeze into the picture that Da Vinci painted. We freeze into our positions, and in your spots, and it's kinda like, oh, you can identify. Right? People are like, oh, that's Peter.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:23:18]:
That's John. All these people, right? And then each one in turn, the spotlight zooms in on us right on your head, in your face. And each of us have a monologue, because every single one of them, when it came to the question of who is going to betray them, that God said, one of you will betray me. Each one of them asked the question, is it I? Is it I? Judas is the only one which I had the privilege of playing 4 times. He says it differently from everybody else. Is it I? Of course I did what I did. He He used to pilfer from the very offering, the first of all the things that he used to be the money, the money guy for the disciples and Jesus. He would pilfer from it, and he just felt so guilty.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:24:12]:
But it says even then Jesus knew who was going to betray him. Alright? And paraphrasing, it sucks for that guy. Alright? Somebody had to play that role, and Judas fit the bill. It's almost like he volunteered. See, Jesus doesn't reject anyone. It's not like it's not the mafia gospel where you keep your friends close and the enemies closer. K. That's not in the bible.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:24:41]:
I heard somebody quote that. That's not in the bible dude. Alright. It's it's he'll bring he'll let anyone in who's willing to handle being with him for the very chance of their soul being saved, but no one will be without that choice. We can only ask act for my nature. So they left him, a lot of them left him, and he turns to them. So I'm gonna turn to the actual verses, because there's more to this. Yeah, here we go.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:25:22]:
So at verse 67 it says, So Jesus said to the 12, you do not want to go also, do you? Like are you are you gonna leave too? Because everyone else said, it's too much. It's too weird. This is not right. I don't know what he's saying. He's just right? And he's talking spiritual things to people who are in the flesh, and it doesn't equate. So now he goes on to say: Simon Peter answered him. You know, Simon, the one who speaks up half the time with the wrong answer, but eager to speak up first, in this case is a powerful one to Peter's credit. He answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:26:05]:
We have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God. See when Jesus asked that question of his 12, his closest ones, I picture him turning to them in tears, Not because he's afraid of what, he's afraid for them, as I believe. His heart is breaking in this very moment because he's obeying the father, but it's the father's will. He's gonna find out himself, it is the Father's will to have revealed himself to his 12. And then Peter answers him these things, and it's so powerful. And Jesus confirms this and he says, Jesus answered them, Did I myself not choose you? Is it powerful? Wait a minute. All the scriptures up to this point in this chapter says the father does the choosing. Now Jesus says he is one with the Father, because if you look at the way it's written, the myself is a capital m.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:27:14]:
It's a reference to God, and he's calling himself God. I chose you, the 12, and yet one of you is a devil. Now he meant Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, 1 of the 12, was going to betray him. We do our best. We try our best, but I wanna absolve you folks from 2 things. Sometimes, even in my occupation as a pastor, we can get fall into a trap of self self preoccupation of yourself. You think about yourself too highly or too much, and 2 ways that shows up are 2 extremes. Either you're all that and a bag of cheese, or you feel like you're worth nothing and worthless.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:28:06]:
And if you're stuck in those 2 extremes, the gospel is impossible for you. God has to literally Jesus, right, has to pull you in. He spread out. He's the only one that can handle that tension in the middle and hold that intention, and he's in the center of it all. Holding us and everything in this universe still in its place, until the right time to be revealed when he comes back, and everything will transform in his due time. I don't know about you, but I hear too much doomsday stuff, doomsday that, this and that. When it's time, it'll be time. That's it.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:28:45]:
Just be ready. So just to fill in the blanks. Number 4, there is no middle ground. Jesus is either a stumbling block or your cornerstone. The cornerstone in building is the foundational block. Everything else, the success and longevity of the building relies upon this one foundation of our faith. Number 5 in that blank, submit to Jesus now as your Lord and Savior because he has already chosen you. He's already chosen you.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:29:29]:
It's your time or it's not, but you'll know. If this is making sense to you, and you feel that conviction, your flesh has no more excuses, Your pride has no more place, and you discover God loves you so much you're not nothing. You're something to him. You're everything to him, and you're willing to accept that this is the time. This is your day. Joshua 2415 says this: If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served, which were beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites whose land you are living, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. If that resonates with you, then welcome home to Jesus. Number 6, be a true disciple.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:30:32]:
Learn of him and walk in his ways. Nobody has all the answers, but you gotta have remember the ministry of the Holy Spirit, right? Before he came, before the Holy Spirit came at Pentecostal, we learn you hear scriptures are saying that the Spirit will do this when it comes. It'll do this, and it says it'll bring to light all to remembrance that you have learned in in the scripture. But we have to give the Holy Spirit something to call upon, right? There is such thing as the Holy Spirit giving you a word of knowledge, which is something you've never learned. That you'd be just for that moment, in that time, in the situation will be something you you have learned nowhere else, but just given to in that moment. It'll be purposeful. But you know how you know the counterfeit from a from a genuine thing? My wife was a was a teller, and she worked for the Hawaii USA Federal Credit Union for years, and she said, you can't study. You can't study all the fakes because fakes are coming out all the time of these different denominations of bills.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:31:39]:
You don't study fakes to find a fake. You study the real thing to know when a fake comes along. That's what the word is for us. So be true. 2nd Peter, I close with these verses. 3 verses 14 through 18. Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace, spotless and blameless and regard patience of our Lord as salvation. Just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you and also in all his letters speaking in them these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the scriptures to their own destruction.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:32:45]:
Verse 17, you therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error or of unprincipled men or fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. Amen. Now close with this, a reminder. In Romans 8, where I quoted earlier, I was alluding to, if you have accepted and you're walking in Him, in all humility and gratefulness for His amazing powerful grace that transforms and changes and seals you in the Holy Spirit. It says this in verse 31, what then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, now who's against us? Rhetorical question, right? He who did not spare his own son but delivered him over for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ is He who died.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:34:05]:
Yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us, who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? No. Just as it is written, for your sake we are being put to death all day long. We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered. And we'll use the rest as our closing prayer. Will you bow with me? Father, we thank You for what You've done and continue to do, and thank You how powerful your ministry is, how unchangeable, how perfect, how immovable and unalterable your will is for every single person. Father, if there's those who are here who is not their time yet, father, may they not hear the voice of condemnation, but the Spirit of God to convict by your by His grace that He still wants you to come. Learn of me, He says, my yoke is easy, my burden It will all be made clear. Just keep coming and saying yes to Jesus and you'll know in your heart that He has received you by what He said.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:35:32]:
In verse 37 it continues, but in all these things we overwhelmingly can conquer through Him who loved us. Conquer. For I'm convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Father, this is our prayer. We thank you so much. We owe you everything and I heard it said this way, you only ask us for one thing in return for your all and everything is our everything as well. And father when you multiply that, add it and shaken together, this world has never seen yet, but the church is going to do and continues to do by the power of your grace and your spirit. It is not us.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:36:31]:
It is all you. All we do is say yes and we show up and we get to be a part of it. We get to witness. We get to be amazed at how you're still working. And Father, we ask the same traveling mercies upon the Yamaguchi family as they're in Japan. Bring them back safely and give them great memories, lasting memories to bond them together and multiply their rest and the joy in You. May they come back with a great testimony of how You move in them there, and we look forward to their return. We thank You in the name of Jesus Christ, we all say amen.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:37:07]:
God bless you.