My aim is to preach expositionally, meaning I aim to
only say what the Bible says and applied faithfully.
Your job is to listen expositionally and so as you
open your Bible, you should notice something interesting
written there at the beginning of John chapter 8.
You may have also noticed today's sermon only covers from
the chapter 8 verse 12 onward. If you notice that, you get a
thumbs up. OK, if you so if you look down
into your Bible, there's probably a note that says
something like this. The earliest manuscripts do not
include Chapter 7 verse 53 to chapter 8 verse 11.
You might also have a footnote, if your Bible is like mine, at
the bottom that says other manuscripts add the passage here
or after John Chapter 7 verse 36, or after John chapter 21
verse 25, or after Luke chapter 21 verse 38 with variations in
the text. And so the reason for this is we
have to understand how the Word of God was handed down to us.
And so this is a little bit of a side before you jump into the
rest of the sermon, but from the time of the apostles, there were
scribes who copied the writings of Scripture in order to
preserve these letters for the next generation.
This was all done by handwriting word for word until the printing
press was invented later in the 1400s.
So all upon this time, they're in these handwritten copies.
We do see slight discrepancies, slight differences from
handwritten manuscripts from throughout history, but we rest
assured that most of these differences are regarding things
like numbers or names, spelling differences.
But none of these differences call into question the core
Christian doctrine. We as Christians, we also
believe God's word is inerrant, meaning God used the apostles to
write his word without error. But that doesn't mean that for
the hundreds of years afterward there would not be differences
in the copies. We also believe that God has
preserved His word for us and that what we have today is a
trustworthy copy of the original.
We actually have over 5000 Greek copies, full manuscripts or
parts of manuscripts of the New Testament that we have in our
hands today from as early as the year 120.
With that said, scholars agree that this passage in chapter 753
to chapter 8, verse 11 was not part of the original because
they're not found in the earliest manuscripts that we
have now. Later manuscripts that were
found had this passage in different places, like it's
noted in the footnote either here at the end of John or even
at the end of the book of Luke. And it's interesting that none
of the early church fathers who comment on the the Gospels,
they, none of them make comments on this particular section.
They in fact, their comments go from Chapter 7 verse 52 right to
chapter 8 verse 12. So then why is it in our Bibles
today? Because in the 1600's the most
influential English translation of the Bible, the King James
Version, included this story, and so English translations
afterwards kept it, but they put it in brackets with this note.
Now I know this passage of the adulterous woman is a beloved
passage for many, and it even seems true to the ministry and
the character of Jesus Christ. And it seems that it very much
well has might have happened. But we know it was not part of
the original manuscripts and we will not regard it as Scripture.
So with that said, let's get started today.
In today's sermon from John chapter 8, verse 12 to 59.
A question for yourself to begin.
Do you think you know yourself? Do you think you know yourself?
I think most of us have a pretty good idea about who we are, our
identity. And I know, but I know all of us
are actually learning more about ourselves as we get older.
We thought we were like this, but we start to realize, oh, so
I am a little bit more like that.
One of the ways I learned more about ourselves, myself, and the
one of the ways I realized we all learn about ourselves is
learning of actually learning about other people.
So the more that we learn about other people, we realize more
about ourselves, especially those who are close in our
lives, in our families. I'm learning that my first
daughter is quick to speak, very quick to speak, and she has a
lot of words to say, especially when she is defending herself.
And I always wondered, where in the world did she learn that
from? And then I realized with the
help of my wife, oh, I'm like that.
I'm exactly like that. I thought myself to be a slow to
speak person, a quick to listen kind of person.
But I'm learning through my daughter.
Oh, I'm not so much like this. I'm a little bit more like that.
I also thought myself to be quite a generous person.
Yes, I'll, if you eat with me or get coffee with me, I'll offer
and I'll buy meals and drinks for you.
I'll give tips for various services here and there, even
though this is not a tipping culture.
And then I learned about how generous my wife is.
And maybe a little bit too generous.
She is. She is more like ready to give
away money at every opportunity God gives to her.
And so I learned a little bit more about myself.
Oh, I'm not that generous. I'm actually quite stingy.
You may have had this experience too, how you learn more about
yourself as you learn more about the important people in your
life. This is all the more true when
it comes to the most important person in all of our lives, the
one whom all of our lives revolve around Jesus Christ.
The more we learn about Jesus identity, who he is, the more we
will learn about who we are in our identities.
And the more we accept Jesus identity, the more we'll be able
to accept our own. And This is why we've been going
to the sermon series called Jesus Is.
And if you realize each sermon title points to 1 aspect of
Jesus identity as we see it directly from scripture today in
John chapter 8, we'll see that Jesus is the light of the world.
We'll also consider how Jesus identity directly applies to us
today. Because by revealing his
identity, Jesus teaches us about our own.
And I pray that from hearing God's Word in this sermon, we'll
come to know and understand who Jesus is more deeply so that we
may properly accept who Jesus is.
And by doing so, we may learn and accept who we are in light
of who Jesus is. The identity.
What is our identity that we naturally have apart from
Christ? And what is the new spiritual
identity that we have now in Christ?
I believe in that. There will be much in God's Word
that will correct us as well as much in God's Word that will
encourage us as we learn about who Jesus is and who we are.
And so here are the two points of the sermon.
If you are taking notes. First accepting Jesus identity.
See that in verses 12 to 30, as well as accepting our own
identity, verses 31 to 59. First accepting Jesus identity,
I want to remind us of the setting we left off from John
Chapter 7. It was the last day of the great
Jewish Feast of Tabernacles. It was a week long celebration.
They were celebrating A plentiful harvest, praising God
for providing the rains all season and providing food for
them to eat until the next year's harvest.
They were also remembering in the Feast of Tabernacles, right
Feast of Boots, as how God had LED Israel through the
wilderness. So they stayed in temporary
shelter for a week, remembering how God provided for them water
their their ancestors water from the rock to drink.
So there was a water pouring ceremony.
If you remember from the last sermon in John Chapter 7 and and
in that ceremony, Jesus stood up to declare if anyone thirsts,
let him come to me and drink. Now there was another
spectacular event as part of this feast that will help us to
understand the significance of what Jesus says here in John
chapter 8. That event was called the
illumination of the temple. It involved lighting four large
candelabras that were placed in the treasury at the temple.
We see down in in verse 20 when we get there that they were this
all this, this discussion took place in the treasury.
A Candelabra, if you don't know, is a candle holder that has
different branches. If you still can't imagine what
it is, if you've seen the movie Beauty and the Beast, it's
Lumiere. That's what he is.
He's the candle guy who sings be our guest.
Be our guest, right? But imagine him much grander and
much greater. And then four of these huge
candelabras placed together at the treasury.
They were so big that young priests had to climb up on
ladders as high as the temple walls in order to fill these
bowls with liters and liters of oil and to light the torches on
the top. And the flames that were coming
out of these torches were so great that they lit up the whole
temple, hence called the illumination of the temple, as
well as the surrounding city of Jerusalem.
That was another visual reminder of God's faithfulness to Israel
during the wilderness time, where God LED them by a pillar
of fire, by night, lighting their way through the darkness,
leading them from slavery to freedom, leading them from
Pharaoh's prison to God's promised land.
Now as a feast came to an end, the lights were put out.
And as the lights were put out, see what Jesus said in verse 12.
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, I am the light of the
world. Whoever follows me will not walk
in darkness, but will have the light of life.
This is an extraordinary way to make an extraordinary claim by
an extraordinary person. No other person in the history
of the world has made such claims to be the light of the
world. To those who are living in
darkness, stumbling at every step, lost in sin, confused,
hopeless, anxious as at life's challenges.
To such people Jesus offered protection, guidance,
forgiveness, salvation, truth and hope.
He offers it all as the light of the world, as the one who would
fulfil the promises of God, who would lead his people just like
God did Israel in the for Israel in the wilderness.
Now Jesus would for all those who are spiritual in spiritual
darkness. He will be the the light to
leave them out. Jesus makes the exclusive claim
that He is the only way to be saved out of the darkness of
sin. See what he offers again.
Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the
light of life. He who has the light of life
gives the light of life that we who were once in darkness would
have that light. There is no other way.
Meaning that that we and we definitely cannot save
ourselves. I don't know if you've ever
tried to walk in a straight line blindfolded.
There have been tests done to see if people can do this, and
they found out that no one can keep walking in a straight line
blindfolded. After a few meters, we might be
able to walk down, you know, this hallway right outside, but
in an open field, people who are blindfolded were way off, making
circles and loops. And The funny thing was everyone
thought they were walking in a straight line when they were
completely off. As human beings, we need visual
cues and physical clues to maintain a straight path.
How true is this for us in our spiritual lives?
We live in darkness, lost, spiraling away from God.
But praise God spiritually, we're given our visual cue, the
light of Jesus Christ, that we may walk in accordance, in the
right way, in accordance to God to to please Him.
Friend, what path are you on today?
Where is your path leading to? And how can you be sure of
what's at the end of that path? As you think about your life and
what path you're on, you'll have two choices presented here
before you, Either to listen to the one who claims to be the
light of the world, receive his light, or take the risk of
walking in darkness, continuing to walk in your own way.
Sadly, the Pharisees chose the latter as a challenge.
Jesus, see verse 13. So the Pharisees said to him,
you are bearing witness about yourself.
Your testimony is not true. Now to be clear it's not wrong
to ask for evidence or explanations is expected
especially when the claims that are being made are so world
shattering as Jesus claims were. Jewish law also stated that for
any formal testimony to be accepted there it must be agreed
upon by two or three witnesses. So it wasn't wrong to ask for
proof but they are wrong to wrongly interpret what Jesus had
said. Jesus said back in John chapter
5 verse 31 and they were repeating that because Jesus
said there if I alone bear witness about myself, my
testimony is not true. But the problem was they left
out the word alone. And they also left out the part
where Jesus gave multiple witnesses, the witness of John
the Baptist, the witness of Jesus's miraculous signs, the
witness of the scriptures that were pointing to him.
The religious leaders here were also wrong to try to use the
legal standards and and loopholes to try to force the
conclusion that Jesus was not telling the truth.
And in the end, they're simply wrong because they just don't
believe Jesus. They look at the light of the
world and they see nothing but a crazy man talking nonsense.
So they're not really asking for an explanation in their hearts.
They're actually looking for reasons to silence Jesus.
See verse 14. Onward.
Jesus answered. Even if I do bear witness about
myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and
where I am going. But you do not know where I come
from or where I am going. You judge according to the
flesh. I judge no one, Yet even if I do
judge, my judgement is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but
I and the Father who sent me. In your law it is written that
the testimony of two people is true.
I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who
sent me bears witness about me. They said to him, Therefore
where is your Father? Jesus answered, You know neither
me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know
my Father also. These words He spoke in the
treasury as he taught in the temple, but no one arrested him
because his hour had not yet come.
So Jesus says he knows where he came from and where he is going.
He is referring to heaven. He's saying that he is the
expert about matters of heaven and these spiritual issues that
concern them. And so therefore, as the master
of heavenly things, Jesus is right to talk the way that he
does. These were the matters that the
Pharisees knew nothing about. Yes, they may have been experts
in their own field in the Jewish law, but they were judging by
the flesh, meaning judging to what they see, judging by human
worldly standards. They're probably recalling how
Jesus doesn't have any credentials.
Where did he study? He's the son of a Carpenter, but
it's clear that Jesus doesn't judge the way they do, for he
knows the heart. Ultimately, Jesus knew the
Father who sent him for this, for his very mission to shine
the light of life in the darkness to bring salvation for
sinners. So God the Father is the other
witness Jesus brings to to his testimony.
Case closed. Or at least it should be.
The Pharisees are the ones that have should have been silent at
this point, listening to the light of life, learning at the
feet of God who has come in the flesh.
But they have been all trying all this time to silence Jesus.
And here again they try to get Jesus arrested.
But it is not his hour yet. Jesus will go when his hour
comes to be arrested, and not a second before.
Now Jesus describes to them what is waiting for them at the end
of their darkness. See verse 21 to 23.
So he said to them again, I'm going away and you will seek me,
and you will die in your sin. Where I'm going, you cannot
come. So the Jew said, will he kill
himself? Since he says where I'm going,
you cannot come. He said to them, You are from
below, I am from above, you are of this world, I am not of this
world. Jesus brings to them a stern
warning. He says they will not be excused
for their ignorance. They're asking the same
questions over and over again, Jesus repeating the answers over
and over again. But in their hearts, they're
rebelling against God as they continue to reject Jesus.
And as they do that, they will die in their sins.
That will be their end. But see how the Pharisees just
gloss over that warning like it's not a big deal?
They're more concerned about where Jesus will go that they
cannot come. Where is Jesus going?
They strangely think Jesus might kill himself, when the irony is
that they would be the ones to bring Jesus to be killed now
because they seem to have missed a warning.
Jesus repeats it two more times in verse 24.
I told you that you would die in your sins.
For unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.
If you're with us here today and you are not a Christian, we want
to extend this same loving warning to you to those who do
not believe in Jesus. For you will die in your sin,
not just the physical death, as we all will die, but a spiritual
death to be separated from God forever in hell.
It's because you are of this world.
You do not belong with God, and you will face the wrath of God
for your sins. But I hope you hear the hope
that you have in verse 24. Unless you believe that I am He,
you will die in your sins. Jesus is your only hope.
Just like He alone is the hope of all the other Christians who
are in this room who have come to believe that He is who He
claimed to be, the light of the world.
Some of us here have not yet made the decision.
We have left it to ignorance saying I just don't know enough
to make a decision yet. Upon hearing this word, you have
a choice today, the decision to believe or not to believe.
If you've left that decision hanging for some time, heed this
warning. Unless you believe you will die
in your sins, that is nothing to leave to ignore ignorance.
That is nothing to leave for later on.
May you come to believe in Jesus today.
See verse 25. So they said to him, Who are
you? Jesus said to them, See what
I've been telling you, just just what I have been telling you
from the beginning. I have much to say about you and
much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the
world what I have heard from Him.
They do not understand that He had been speaking to them about
the Father. You see by now how Jesus has
been repeating Himself. He declares who He is.
The Jews demand proof, so Jesus provides the proof, and then the
Jews ask who he is. Jesus explains again who he is,
and the cycle goes over and over and over again.
Any one of us can come to the conclusion they are not asking
to learn, they're asking to condemn.
And it is clear, as it says in verse 27, they do not understand
nor do they want to see. Jesus responds.
Verse 26, verse 28. So Jesus said to them, when you
have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He,
and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the
Father taught me. And he who sent me is with me.
He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are
pleasing to Him. As He was saying these things,
many believe in Him. So not only was Jesus claiming
that He uniquely knows the Father, not only was he claiming
that he was sent from heaven from the by the Father, but now
Jesus claims in verse 29, I always do what is pleasing to
him. I always do everything that I do
is pleasing to the Father. I know all Christians say we
want to please God. I know Christians say we want to
do all things for the glory of God, that we want to love God
with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.
But can anyone really say it like Jesus does?
No, no one in their right mind and in their honest heart can
say I always do what is pleasing to the Father.
Which is why we can praise God that Jesus can, and we praise
God that Jesus has done it so perfectly.
This is why Jesus can be the substitute to die in our place
for our sins. It would be no use if there was
another Sinner. Even if I were to die for you,
it would mean nothing. I'm a fellow Sinner, guilty of
sin, guilty on my own before God to receive His wrath.
But Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world
because He was the perfect sacrifice who was without sin.
He lived in perfect obedience to the Father like we should have
lived, yet He chose to die the death we sinners should have
died. How did he do that?
Says in verse 28 the Son of Man was lifted up.
How was he lifted up? He was lifted up onto the cross
as a substitute, taking upon himself the wrath of God, the
shame for our sin, so that all who would repent of their sins
and believe in him, the light of the world, would be saved.
This is what it means to accept Jesus for who he is.
And accepting Jesus identity means we learn to accept our
own, how we are in need, how we were desperately lost.
We see more of this in the in the second point of the sermon,
accepting our own identity. See verse 31.
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, If you abide
in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the
truth, and the truth will set you free.
We have to know. What's interesting here is that
Jesus turns his attention to those who believed in him,
right? That's what it said in verse 30.
And now so he turns to the Jews who believed in him.
What he does not say is, yay, you believe.
Great job. No, he says, if you abide in my
word, you are truly my disciples.
In the same way he did for all those who claim to believe in
him. Jesus asks us today to pause and
consider the faith that we think we have because they, along with
all who consider themselves to be Christian, we must examine
our own faith. How do we know if we are true
disciples of Jesus? Note what He doesn't do.
He doesn't give us a whole list we need to check off, does He?
He simply says one thing. If you abide in My word, meaning
if you hold on to His word, you cling to His word for your dear
life and you remain in His word knowing that you have nothing
good apart from Him and His word.
As you follow Him, you can know you are truly His disciples.
It doesn't matter what you look like on the outside, it doesn't
matter where you come from, it doesn't matter what you have
achieved or how you have failed. If you abide in Jesus word, you
will know you can know you are truly His disciples.
Verse 32 and you will know the truth and the truth will set you
free. This means as Jesus disciples,
we don't pick and choose different parts of Jesus's
teaching that we will and we want to obey.
No, we submit to the authority of all of Jesus's teaching and I
think that's why here it's it's in that single unified summary
as the word of Jesus, our submission and obedience is
reflected over time in regards to personal holiness, in regards
to worship, in regards to church life, and in regards to
evangelism. We will submit our lives, all
that we do to the word of God. That means including when we
fall short, when we fail, we abide, we remain, we believe it
is true still because God's Word gives, Jesus's word gives life
to our hearts darkened by sin. I think we can apply this,
especially when it comes to our evangelism.
It means as we evangelize, we evangelize thoughtfully, not
recklessly. We don't pressure people into
conversion by winning arguments, but we rather lead them to the
truth of Jesus teaching and guide them to genuine faith.
This is especially true in evangelizing our children,
whether as parents in the home or teachers in children's
ministry, or as older Christians to the next generation.
We should call for professions of faith from our children, and
we should do so regularly. Do you believe in Jesus?
Do you know what that means? What is the saying God's word?
How will you live that out? But we should also affirm the
genuineness of their faith. It means we don't rush them or
pressure them to make decisions like getting baptized out of our
own fear that they might not go to heaven.
Remember, that's not the way. It's simply to abide in Jesus's
word, to remain in his word over time.
It's by faith. And so we can help our children
to be sure to teach them how to abide in His word together.
This promise of Jesus is what settles our fears and sets our
hope. When we fall short, when there's
people in beloved people in our lives who have yet to come to
believe in Jesus Christ, verse 32 you will know the truth and
the truth will set you free, free from sin, free from death.
Now for the Jews who believed, they began to show signs already
that they did not abide in Jesus's teaching.
They did not abide in Jesus's word for very long at all
because as Jesus began to show them their real identity he had
prick their pride and they are quick to argue against what
Jesus says. We can take another breath of
hope as we as we see a negative example.
What does it mean to not truly be Jesus disciples like this?
To say you believe and not abiding his word?
Simple as that. See verse 33.
They answered him. We are offspring of Abraham and
have never been enslaved to anyone.
How is it that you say you will become free?
You can start to hear the ugly, challenging tone in their
question. It's because they were so sure
of their status as Abraham's offspring with because with that
status came special benefits. They had the covenant promises
of God that through Abraham they will be blessed.
They had God's presence at the temple and that unique
relationship with God. So even though they had been
oppressed by many other nations in the past, including Rome in
their present, their sense of spiritual freedom and privilege
was so strong that they did not recognize their need for
anything else. Blinded by their pride, they
were set in their minds, they're good to go.
What else do they need? And so Jesus continues to spell
it out for them very specifically what their need is
and what was wrong with their hearts.
See verse 34. Jesus answered them truly,
truly. I say to you, everyone who
practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the
house forever. The sun remains forever.
So if the sun sets you free, you will be free indeed.
I know that you are offspring of Abraham, yet you seek to kill me
because My word finds no place in you.
I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do, and you
do what you have heard from your Father.
Our ears should go up whenever Jesus says truly, truly, because
he is about to drop some serious truth that we must take heed and
take into our hearts. He says to them their problem
truly, truly that their problem was sin.
They should have their whatever spiritual benefits that they had
as as the biological offspring of Abraham should not blind them
to the deeper problem in their hearts.
He says everyone who sins is a Sinner and a Sinner is not free,
no matter how much they think there are.
It's just like how an addict denies the power of his
addiction. He says he can stop tomorrow if
he wanted to. Yet it has been years since he
started. Sooner or later that addiction
will kill him. So to our slave, our sin
enslaves us by making us think we don't have a problem.
That's how sin works. Sin masters us by making us
think we're actually free to choose, that we can stop when we
want to. No, that's not That's not
freedom. That's stubborn blindness.
And pitiful life to the teenagers.
If I could speak to you in this room, I know you're in a season
of life where you think freedom is doing whatever it is you want
to do. I know this because I was a
teenager once who did lots of things thinking I was free
because I could do them. But I was still enslaved by my
sin, sneaking off at night, doing the things that my mom
would not want me to do if she knew.
I hope she's not listening to this.
No teens, true freedom is choosing to do what is right
even when your parents are not around.
That's true freedom. No one needs to tell you to do
what is right. No one needs to to pressure you
to follow God. Freedom is obeying and honouring
God from your heart, even when your friends are trying to
pressure you to do the wrong things.
So before you go off to university and have all that
extra time and space to yourself, learn now what true
freedom is. And as you see yourself enslave
to sin because you sin and because you are a Sinner, ask
Jesus to set you free. Set you free from your sins.
For it says in verse 36, if the sun sets you free, you will be
free indeed. May you be free to do what is
right for God now to the rest of your life.
Christians, this is the great promise of Jesus to those who
accept that they are sinners enslaved to sin, that our
problem is sin, that we cannot shake it off no matter how much
we try on our own. And though we continue to
struggle with sin, we have been set free.
We've been set free from the penalty of sin.
We no longer have to pay the the the punishment of our sins in in
God's wrath. We are being set free from the
power of sin as sin slowly loosens its grasp on us, as we
hate sin, as we want to kill sin in our lives.
And we will be free one day fully from the presence of all
sin in heaven. So for those who have been set
free from being slaves to sin, what can, what else could we do
but to give glory to God by sharing your stories of freedom?
Share how God has set you free from yourself, from your
blindness, from your stubbornness.
Maybe encourage one another testifying about God's power and
grace setting us free from our sins.
Sadly, this is not true for the Jews who believed and were no
longer abiding in Jesus word Jesus continued to diagnose
their hearts saying in verse 37, I know that you are offspring of
Abraham yet to seek, yet you seek to kill me because my word
finds no place in you as he says as he as we narrow in on that we
see that the problem of sin cannot be solved by claiming
heritage or history. But this is what they're doing
and some, some Christians do this today even I'm a Christian
because I have a heritage or a history of Christian works.
No, their hearts were too full of pride and self-sufficiency,
too full of themselves that they had no room for Jesus word for
Jesus truth. And that is what's tragic.
And it only gets worse because they refused to think about what
Jesus was saying. Verse 39.
They answered him, Abraham is our father.
Jesus said to them, if you were Abraham's children, you would be
doing the works Abraham did, but now you seek to kill me, a man
who has told you the truth that I heard from God.
This is not what Abraham did. So what Jesus is doing here is
he begins to suggest that as as Jesus said, my father is, is God
in heaven. They follow their father and now
he he continues to make clear that they are not the true
offspring of Abraham because if they were they would have been,
they would have been glad to hear Jesus word because that's
what Abraham did to God's word. Abraham respond to faith when
God said, go, leave your home, leave your country to a place
unknown that you have no idea you've never been, and I'll make
into a great nation. Abraham by faith believe.
And so it's true, Abraham would never do what they are doing now
rejecting the word of God. And in fact, we learned later in
Romans Chapter 9 that not all the natural ethnic children of
Abraham are his true offspring, but the children of the promise
who share in that same faith of Abraham, who are count, who are,
those are the ones who are counted as his offspring.
And they will come from all nations, not just from Israel.
So if they were not Abraham's offspring, whose offspring were
they? Verse 41 You are doing the works
your father did. They said to him, we were not
born of sexual immorality. We have one father, even God.
Jesus said to them, if God were your father, you would love me,
for I came from God and I am here.
I came not of my own accord, but He sent me.
Why do you not understand what I say?
It is because you cannot bear to hear my word.
You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do
your father's desires. He was a murderer from the
beginning and does not stand in the truth because there's no
truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of
his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
Because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.
Which one of you convicts me of sin?
If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me?
Whoever is of God hears the word of God.
The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.
From Abraham, the Jews here, they jumped straight to God,
saying God, even God, is our father.
To that Jesus gives 2 reasons why they're not God's children.
Because if they really were God's children verse 42, then
they would love Jesus the Father.
In His love He sent his only Son to do His will.
And God was standing before their very eyes, standing in the
flesh to come to teach them, show them the way, and save them
from their sins. But clearly no love for Jesus.
So they cannot claim God as their Father.
The second reason in verse 47, if they were of God, meaning if
they belong to God, they would accept Jesus's word.
But they do not hear, they do not accept, they do not
understand, because they do not belong to God.
So whose children were they? Just need to do what's called
the duck test, right? If it swims like a duck, quacks
like a duck, it's probably a duck.
Jesus points out their will to kill and their love for lies.
Now who was a murderer from the beginning and did not stand for
truth? The devil himself, the father of
all lies. The Jews here we're not the
offspring of Abraham. They could not claim God as
their father. They were the offspring of the
devil, so that's why they were acting this way, wanting to kill
Jesus. That's why they hated the truth.
Jesus is diagnosed. Diagnosis here of who they
really are makes so much sense compared to the proud, arrogant
claims that they were making. They were so enslaved by sin, so
hardened to the truth, so darkened in their understanding,
that they hated the light of the world.
How sad is verse 45? Because I tell the truth, you do
not believe me. So fixed and set in their own
ways, in their sin they are that Jesus can say, because I tell
the truth, you do not believe me.
Because they love what's false. If you do not believe Jesus, if
you do not hear the words of God, if you are not moved by the
truth of Jesus in the Gospel, it is because you do not belong to
God. I pray you would cry out to God
that He may have mercy on you and that He would make you his
child. Because all the children of God
are adopted. No one's born into his family,
but born again into new life with new hearts that hate the
old ways and love God and love Jesus Christ.
And if you are a believer in Jesus, remember and may you
today be renewed in your hope that God has brought you out of
his darkness and into his marvellous light.
What hope that we have to continue to walk in this world
still darkened by sin and death, by pain, by loss.
We walk with a hope that we belong to God.
So now, who else in your life needs to hear?
To my Christian friends, to whom can you proclaim the
excellencies of God? Who has called you out?
Who has saved you? Whether starting with your
family, go to your friends. There's no one too lost or too
far to be saved by the power of God that has saved us.
Now look at verse 48. The Jews answered him.
Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a
demon? Jesus answered, I do not have a
demon, but I honour my Father and you dishonour me.
Yet I do not seek my own glory. There is one who seeks it, and
He is the judge. Truly, truly.
I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.
What do the Jews resort to now? The final weapon, Name calling.
Like children backed up into a corner, having nothing left to
defend themselves. Now they name call Jesus, Jesus.
They knew Jesus was a Jew before they were mocking him because he
was just. He looked like such an ordinary
Jew to be doing these great things of God.
But by calling him a Samaritan, it shows how much they hated
Jesus because they hated Samaritans deeply.
On top of that they call Jesus demon possessed.
And so they were slandering Jesus all the claims that he
make, all the things that he taught by 1 accusation saying he
has a demon. They try to negate everything
Jesus has said thus far. See how Jesus knew slander so
well, even though he spoke truth, he received slander as he
tried to misalign his character. And as Jesus knew slander, Jesus
taught his followers to be prepared for slander as well.
Beloved Christians, if we truly follow Jesus, if we truly abide
in His Word as we make Him known and and share our testimonies of
our freedom from sin, testimonies of how great God is
and how he's the only way to be saved, as we live such lives, we
too will be hated. We too will be slandered without
a real reason other than being Jesus's disciple.
We should not be surprised when it happens to us and when it
does, we must strive to honour God above all by the grace of
God. Just like how Jesus here was
honouring the Father even when he was being dishonoured.
And just like how Jesus trusted the Father would seek the glory
of his Son, right? He says in verse 50, I do not
seek my own glory. There is one who seeks it, his
Father who is the judge. And like Jesus, we can trust
that God will be the one who will judge, that God will be the
one who will repay. He will have his justice.
So as we commit ourselves to the Lord, even as we face
persecution, even threats to our lives, we are secure in the
promise of Jesus. Verse 51 Truly, truly, I say to
you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.
I think a great way to be reminded of this is to be able
to get on the newsletters of missionaries and and hear their
stories and receive their prayer requests.
I just received one yesterday. I'd like to read a part of it
for us. This is our third week in of
meeting in the village. Each of the last two weeks we've
had clear verbal opposition to our being there, parentheses and
a few harmless rocks thrown at the house where we meet.
Pray that those who come to oppose us would have their
hearts turned so that they would come and listen and pray for the
growth and health and strength of this seedling church.
End Quote. And praise God as we prayed for
them. They had a blessed gathering,
learning from the Gospel of Mark, even had a fruitful
conversation with the village leaders about them meeting there
and they won favour with the village leader.
What a godly example for us to live for our Lord Jesus, where
rocks are harmless and where it is our priority to honour God,
to love those who dishonour us. To God be the glory even when we
face harm and hatred for His name.
Now this, this talk about never seeing death was the final
trigger for them. What was meant to bring about
such hope and encouragement for those who follow Jesus?
They were driven to even more offence and anger.
They took it personally. Verse 52 the Jew said to him,
now we know that you have a demon.
Abraham died as did the prophets.
Yet you say, if anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.
Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died and the
prophets died? Who do you make yourself out to
be? Jesus answered.
If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing.
It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, he is our
God, but you have not known him. I know him.
If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like
you. But I do know Him, and I keep
his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced
that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.
What Jesus says is here is interesting because Abraham
lived some 2000 years before Jesus did.
So what does it mean that Abraham rejoiced and saw the day
of Jesus? It was not like he saw a future
vision of Jesus, but it was by faith.
Abraham believed all the promises of God.
He believed all that God said in His word would come true.
Hebrews Chapter 11 records all the faithful Israelites, how
they too all died in faith, not having received the things
promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar.
God had promised Abraham that he will be greatly blessed, made
into a great nation, and in Abraham the families of the
earth would be blessed too. And Abraham believed God at his
word, so Even so, and by faith he believes that even when he
was tested, Abraham offered up his only son, Isaac.
Abraham did not withhold his only son, so God promised to
multiply his offspring through Isaac as the stars in the sky,
as a sand on the seashore, to bless all the nations.
And the way of blessing to the nations would be through this
one Saviour who would come from one of his offspring through the
generations of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, all the way to Jesus.
So Jesus declared, the promise is being fulfilled, the time is
here, the day is here. When he said Abraham saw my day
and was glad. Jesus was saying that all those
promises of Abraham are true in him and for this we praise God,
for God had not diverted. God did not forget his promises
or His word. He is faithful, He is true, and
he remains faithful to his promises today for those who
here can come to trust and believe in in God like Abraham
did. Now we know that the Jews who
heard Jesus, by now, we know they're really not listening.
In their pride and in their anger, they cannot accept their
limited finiteness in light of Jesus's unlimited Infinity, in
light of Jesus's timelessness. See verse 37 to the end.
So the Jews said to him, you are not yet 50 years old, and have
you seen Abraham? Jesus said to them, Truly,
truly, I say to you, before Abraham was I am.
So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid
himself and went out of the temple.
We should notice that there seems to be somewhat of a
grammatical error in verse 58. Before Abraham was I was would
be proper grammar. But Jesus was not giving a
language lesson on past tense verbs.
He was making a reference to the divine name of God.
I am. Remember how we read early in
the service from Exodus chapter 3 where God gives his name to
Moses from the burning Bush. I am who I am.
Tell them I am has sent you. Just like how the fire did not
consume the wood of the of the Bush.
That is a glimpse of what God is like.
God is not dependent on anyone. God is self-sufficient.
He is self existent, existent. He has no beginning, no end.
He is sovereign over all, the source of life, who gives life,
who needs not receive anything from anyone.
He is the great I am. And what Jesus is doing here is
declaring himself to be that great.
I am to be God. Either Jesus's words are really
the words of a demon possessed blasphemer, or truly the words
of God who has come in the flesh in response to such a grand
claim to be God. There are two options.
Either we accept Him with humble hearts and welcome Jesus as God,
as Lord, as we strive to live according to His will, or we
reject Him. The Jews clearly understood what
Jesus was saying, what Jesus was claiming to be.
The more Jesus revealed himself, the more they wanted to kill Him
for blasphemy. That's the reason why here they
picked up stones to end Jesus right there.
But again, they couldn't. There was not yet time according
to the schedule of the great I AM.
But how sad it is for at the end of verse 59, how Jesus hid
himself when out of the temple. Augustine said of this as man
Jesus fled from the stones, But woe to those from whose Stony
hearts God has fled. They do not belong to God.
They want nothing to do with God, for they are set, happy and
secure in all the wrong ways, in what they have, in their
ethnicity, in their heritage, in their history.
But for us today, let's not make that same mistake.
Let's understand that Jesus is the eternal God who stepped down
into our time. He is the pre-existing God who
has come in the flesh. He is the humble servant who
laid down his life for sinners like us, the light of the world
who has given life to us. But for now, at the end of this
passage, He hides himself away from the temple.
His time had not yet come. His hour is not yet.
But soon the Pharisees would get what they wanted, not because
they overpowered Jesus or outwitted Jesus in their
arguments, but because Jesus himself would willingly go like
a lamb that has led to the slaughter.
He did not open his mouth to revile those who reviled against
him. He did not oppress those who
oppressed him. But Jesus went willing to be
betrayed, willing to go to the cross He did not deserve,
willing to die for us and for all who would repent of their
sins, believe in Jesus Christ and abide in His word.
So hearing all of Jesus's words that he spoke here in John
chapter 8, we must come to a decision.
Is what Jesus said true? Is all that he said about
himself? Is it all true?
If it is true, will you reject Him?
Or if it or seeing that it is true, will you receive and
accept what He says about himself and what He says about
you? That you are a Sinner and slave
to your sin and the only way to be freed is by believing in
Jesus. The truth will set you free.
Free from sin, free from death, free from darkness.
If we accept who Jesus is and accept who we are, we are
brought out of that darkness into His light.
Apart from Christ, we will stay enslaved.
We remain of the devil, the father of lies and the murderer
of all time. He will remain our Father.
But when we are in Christ Jesus, we belong to his Father, adopted
into his family as his own children.
So know Jesus to know more of yourself.
Accept who Jesus is and accept who you are and find true
freedom in Jesus Christ. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for your words that are true,
Such wonderful truth that gives us comfort and hope, but also
hard truth that that makes us evaluate and look deeply to our
own hearts and to our own needs. Wake us up out of our blindness
if there remains any, out of our darkness if there remains any,
and maybe walk following the light of the world with the
light of life by your truth. Continue to drive this truth in
US even as we continue in our time of worship, as we go to the
table, that we may love you and worship you with all that we
are. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Take a moment to consider the Word of God that was preached
for yourself, personally responding to it, what you learn
about yourself, but more importantly what you learn about
God as you do afterwards, we will take of the Lord's Supper
together.