In the last post, we kinda left off in the middle of a conversation between Christ and these Jews, where these Jews are claiming to be sons of Abraham, to which Christ responded, “If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.”

This in turn made them angry and they responded by saying, “We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.”

I began that post by saying that we had come to the group mentioned in Revelation 3:9, Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.

Then when we got to John 8:37, where Jesus agrees with them that they are Abraham’s seed, I told you how I felt Christ was saying that it didn’t matter who your father was, but what mattered was that once you are baptized into Christ then you are Abraham’s seed.

I don’t want to take away from that message because it’s true that no matter who you are, if you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you too CAN become a child of the living God. But today, we are going to focus on this synagogue of Satan.

John 8:42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. (43) Why do ye not understand my speech?even because ye cannot hear my word.

Remember Nicodemus? He was a pharisee as well and, while he didn’t always understand Jesus, he asked questions so that he could understand. He believed Jesus. How do we know he believed him? Because in chapter 19 of this same book, we see that he brings myrrh and aloes to Jesus and helped with His burial.

John 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

What on earth is He talking about? Satan. Who was the first murderer? Cain of course. And who was Cain’s father? Despite what many think, it wasn’t Adam. It was Satan. This is why God said to the serpent in Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

He wasn’t speaking about apple seeds. He was talking about children and his children did bruise the heel of our savior when they drove the spike through it when nailing Him to the cross.

We will be doing a more in depth study on this topic, as it deserves further study, but for today let’s get a second witness to this by turning to Matthew.

Matthew 13:24-25 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: (25) But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.

A tare, for those of you who don’t know, is a plant that while it is growing in the field looks just like the good wheat, until it comes to harvest time. Thus a farmer is unaware of them until they begin to bear fruit, and he has to deal with them is because they are poisonous. Their fruit will kill you.

Matthew 13:26-29 But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. (27) So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? (28) He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? (29) But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.

The reason we aren’t to gather them up early is because, not only are they hard to spot, and you could grab the wrong ones by accident, but their roots are also intertwined with the wheat and pulling them up would harm the good roots.

Matthew 13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

Christ here gives us some other parables, and I encourage you to read them in their entirety as they are important, but for the sake of brevity and the topic we are covering, we will jump down to his explanation.

Matthew 13:36-38 Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. (37) He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; (38) The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;

God planted good seed in the garden. Satan came and planted his seed. “Well that is talking about the Son of man, that’s Jesus. That isn’t talking about the garden of Eden.” That’s true in part because Jesus here is not only giving us the physical seed, but also the spiritual. What does Christ tell us in this self same chapter?

John 8:56-58 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. (57) Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? (58) Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.

Jesus was around long before He showed up wrapped in swaddling clothes. Do you see how He used I AM there? That’s exactly the same name He used when He came to Moses in the burning bush. God is the same yesterday, today, and guess what, He will be tomorrow.

God did not just wake up one day and go, “Gee these Israelites suck I’m going to just open Myself up to all these gentiles and teach them a lesson.” No it was part of His plan from the beginning. That is why He gave us the prophecy about the bruised heel the very moment Satan came to tempt man kind, because He knew that man was weak.

We don’t know how long Adam and Eve were in the garden before the serpent came, but we do know they had full bellies and wanted for nothing and still they couldn’t cut it. We also know that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ came and, even after being hungry in the desert with the sun beating down and His lips split, He told Satan to take a hike.

Regardless of whether you want to buy into the notion that the sons of Cain are represented here or not, the fact remains that there are two trees, two vines you can be attached to. The first is the tree of life which is to say Christ. Israel is the natural, physical seed, but salvation was opened to all spiritually. The second is Satan’s tree, which has gone by many names over the years, but those that are attached to it are are his children, physical or otherwise. I’d suggest you make sure you know which one your attached to, and make sure it is love that is pumping in from the root and nothing else.

We will finish out this eighth chapter of John next time. Until then stay in His word and God Bless.