JOHN CHAPTER EIGHT

Sin and Light
John 8:1-18

Forgiveness—what is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear that word? Perhaps you are thinking how difficult it is to forgive someone who has hurt you. Perhaps you wish you felt forgiven for some of the things you have done. Or possibly you are recalling the sense of relief you have felt because you have been forgiven. Maybe you are one of those people who feel they have done something so horrible that they cannot possibly be forgiven for it. The boys in the following story may have had such feelings.

“Pastor Jason Martin woke from a solid sleep to find firefighters dousing a 3 by 5 foot cross burning on the lawn in front of his family's home in a community north of Seattle, Washington. When authorities arrested two teens on the charge of malicious felony  harassment, Martin told his church he hoped to have an opportunity to talk to the boys himself.

“The Sunday after the incident, Martin told his church he wanted to tell the boys who set the fire that he had forgiven them and that he would like to offer the young men guidance if they were willing to listen. Martin said, "We want to throw sticks and stones and cuss and all kinds of things when someone hurts us, but if we want to be good Christians, if we want to be a good community, I say send your enemy flowers.

“Martin asked his congregation to pray for the teens saying, ‘They may feel they've done something that can't be forgiven. They can be forgiven.’"[fn]

One of the reasons Jesus came to earth was to provide a way for us to be forgiven and to teach us how to forgive others, as we will see very shortly.

John 8:1-5 NAS:
1 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
2 Early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people were coming to Him; and He sat down and began to teach them.
3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court,
4 they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act.
5 “Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?”

As we come to chapter eight of John’s Gospel, the Feast of Tabernacles has just concluded, and as was Jesus’ custom when in Jerusalem, He spent the night in the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives.[fn] He rose early the next morning, the day after the feast had ended, and returned to the Temple where it did not take long for a large crowd to gather to hear Him teach. As Jesus was teaching, the Pharisees and teachers of religious law rudely interrupted Him. They apparently had something up their sleeve to try and distract the crowd from being convinced by the power of Jesus’ words. So they dragged in this poor woman whom they had convicted of adultery and stood her in full view in front of the crowd. Just imagine the shame she must have felt being humiliated like that in front of possibly hundreds of people, some of whom may have known her. Then they said to Jesus: “in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women;[fn] what then do You say?” They were probably hoping that Jesus would tell them that the woman should be forgiven of her sin and set free. If He did that the people would very likely question whether Jesus was truly from God because they held Moses in the highest of esteem due to his close relationship with God in being the one to whom God entrusted the Law. If anyone contradicted God’s Law, they would be regarded as a false teacher.

Since they had not been able to arrest Jesus, the Pharisees hoped to destroy His influence by forcing Him into a situation in which He would either have to directly violate the Law of God, or a law established by their Roman rulers. The Law of God demanded the execution of this woman, but Rome had removed the authority of the Jewish leaders to order the death penalty except for temple violations. Thus the Jewish leaders were hoping to put Jesus in a lose/lose situation. If He were to say that the woman should be forgiven, He would be rejecting God’s Law as given to Moses and that would very likely turn the people against Him because Moses was highly respected for his role in receiving the Law of God which they lived by. If, however, Jesus were to say that the Law should be carried out and the woman stoned, then He would be violating Roman Law and the Jewish leaders could report Him to the Roman authorities.[fn] Have you ever been in a situation that no matter what you did someone would be mad at you? That is the kind of situation in which  the Jewish leaders tried to place Jesus.

John 8:6-11 NAS:
6 They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground.
7 But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”
8 Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9 When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court.
10 Straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?”
11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.”

Jesus did not answer these Jewish leaders, but bending down He began to write in the dust. Some have suggested Jesus was jotting down the details of sins committed by the accusers. As they continued to insist on a judgment, Jesus looked up. “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”[fn]

One by one these Jewish leaders, undoubtedly condemned by their own consciences, slipped away. Left alone with the woman, Jesus announced, “Neither do I condemn you. Go now and stop living a sinful life. ”The Jewish men slinked off, neither having forgiven the woman, nor having been forgiven themselves. The woman, on the other hand, left Jesus’ presence forgiven. We daresay she probably felt a sense of freedom and joy, along with a resolve to do as Christ had commanded her. We hope you are able to see the contrast here between Jesus’ way and the way of the Jewish leaders. Jesus has brought to the people a way of life which comes from the grace of God in contrast to a legalistic way of life that is promoted by the Pharisees and teachers of the Law.

The legalism promoted by the Pharisees would use this woman’s situation to try and turn the people against Jesus. She had no value as a human being to them, so they did not care what happened to her. But Jesus cared about her as one of God‘s children. She was guilty, but in spite of her sin Jesus refused to condemn her. Grace values human life and will not allow it to be destroyed without provision for its restoration. God knows that all of us have sinned, but withholds condemnation in order to give life, and to encourage the sinner to “leave a life of sin.”[fn]

The Law was a good and holy expression of righteousness. Adultery is wrong, and we are to care about doing what is right. But the Pharisees were not concerned with what was the right thing to do for the people whose care they were entrusted with. In this particular situation they had no concern for this woman being reformed. Their motives were not righteous, but vengeful.

On the other hand, everything Jesus did was righteous, and was designed to produce righteousness. Jesus supported the Law’s penalty for sin, but demanded a sinless history of living from anyone who would execute it! Christ Himself judged the sin wrong, but rather than condemn the sinner, Jesus withheld the penalty so that she might go and sin no more![fn]

But once again Jesus shows that He is far superior in wisdom to be taken in by any earthly plot to discredit Him because His answer does not go against the Law of Moses or the Roman Law.

So Jesus very calmly told them if that was what the Law said then they should go ahead and stone her, but that only the person who had not sinned was to throw the first stone. What a predicament for the Pharisees. Now they had to deal with the reality of Jesus having agreed with what the Law commanded in the case of adultery, but if they stoned her one of them would have to be declaring that he had never sinned and the people would not have accepted that. Plus the Pharisees themselves would then have been the ones in violation of Roman Law. They would have very likely therefore angered the crowd making the people even more likely to support what Jesus was telling them. In the way that only Jesus could, He pulled off another master stroke of genius here and at the same time made it clear to the woman and the crowd that there was no condemnation from God or from Jesus for those who were repentant of their sin and who believed what Jesus was teaching them. Romans 8:1 tells us: “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” a promise that applied to this woman as well. God’s forgiveness is available to anyone who will come to Him and sincerely trust in Christ’s work on the Cross for their salvation.

I am quite sure you can imagine what the reaction of the crowd was to Jesus after seeing this. He had beaten the Jewish leaders at their own game. They had interrupted Him in the middle of His message to the people hoping to make Him look foolish, but Jesus easily turned the tables making them the ones who looked foolish. The crowd must have been eager by this time to hear what else Jesus had to say. So Jesus went directly to the heart of what He wanted the people to understand.

In John 8:12 (NAS), Jesus said:

12 “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

As the Light of the world, Christ claimed to be God, for God is light. In 1 John 1:5 (NLT), John writes: “This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.” Darkness speaks of death, ignorance, and sin; light speaks of life, knowledge, and holiness.[fn]

When you are driving down a dark road at night, what do you do? You turn on your lights, your headlights, so you can see where you are going. When you are looking for something in a dark closet, you shine a light on the area you are searching so you can find what you want. Light shows you the way and helps you find things.

Jesus Christ, as the Light of the world, shows us the way to God and helps us find Him.

You all have probably noticed the frequent references in the Bible to light when referring to God and Jesus. In John’s Gospel the term light specificallyrefers to God’s love for all people. It also refers to the fact that God is willing to demonstrate that love in and through Jesus Christ, who has been sent to teach us that God loves each person so much that He is willing to offer them the free gift of forgiveness and salvation and eternal life in Heaven if they will believe what Jesus is telling them and doing for them through His earthly ministry. God wants the people to know that Christ is His messenger and that He has been sent to set all people free from lives darkened by sin. Jesus has been sent to provide the way to forgiveness for all of us. This fact should really provide new meaning for you when reading John 3:16-18 NAS:

16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
17 "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
18 "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

So Christ refers to Himself as “the light of the world” (also see John 9:5; 12:46). We could translate John 8:12 to read as follows in today’s language:

“Jesus told them, ‘I am God’s messenger from Heaven sent to earth in a physical body to tell you just how very much God loves each and every one of you. Anyone who believes what God is saying through Me will no longer have to be alone in the darkness of their sin which leads to eternal damnation and Hell, but will receive God’s promise of salvation, joy, and peace in this world and eternal life with God in Heaven in the next.’”

Then in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus applies this term, “light,” to His disciples.

Matthew 5:14-16 NAS:
14 "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden;
15 nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.
16 "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

Anyone who believes Jesus’ message from God becomes God’s messenger of divine love as well, just as Jesus was. Believers are to light the way for others to come to Jesus.

2 Corinthians 4:6 (NLT)
6 For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.

Light is God’s message of love and salvation to all of His children, and that means every single person who has ever been born on this earth. Think of the wonder of it all. God was willing to come to earth in the form of the man, Jesus Christ, to bring us His message of love and then He was willing to die an excruciatingly painful death to seal that love in our eternity. Do not let a day go by without thanking Him for that. And if you have not yet accepted that free gift of love through Jesus Christ, today would be a good day to do that. Why live in darkness one moment longer?

Now according to John 8:20, Jesus delivered this message in The Court of Women, which was one of the busiest parts of the Temple. It was the perfect place for what Jesus wanted to do. You see the Feast of Tabernacles had just concluded the day before, and there were two great ceremonies that took place during the feast. One, as we have seen, was the pouring out of the water. The other was called the “Illumination of the Temple” and it took place in The Court of Women at the beginning of the feast.[fn]

In the center of the Court of Women great torches were set up. Some accounts say that the torches were as high as the highest walls of the Temple and that at the top of these torches were gigantic bowls holding sixty-five liters of oil. There was a ladder for each torch and in the evening of that first day young priests would carry the oil up to the top, where they would light the protruding wicks. The great flames that leapt out of these torches illumined the whole temple and much of Jerusalem. It was spectacular! The Mishnah describes what happened after the torches were lit: Men of piety and good works used to dance before them with burning torches in their hands singing songs and praises and countless Levites played on harps, lyres, cymbals, and trumpets and other musical instruments. They would dance until dawn. It was an exotic festival celebrating the great pillar of fire that led the people of Israel during their travels in the wilderness. It was in this place, no doubt with the charred torches still in place, that Jesus chose to raise His voice above the crowd and proclaim, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." There could be no better way to announce the reality of who and what Jesus was, and what they needed to understand about Him.[fn]

Jesus said, "I am the light of the world." Those great torches in the temple symbolized the Shekinah glory, a Hebrew word from the root “to dwell” that is translated as the “Presence” of God.[fn] Christ was saying in effect, "Do you remember the pillar that came between you and the Egyptians near the Red Sea, the pillar that protected you and led you on your wanderings in the wilderness? I am the Light of the world. I am that Shekinah glory." What a statement! Jesus was claiming to be God. He was claiming to be the same one who protected them and guided them through the wilderness. Jesus is the Shekinah glory.

Jesus also makes a claim for those who follow Him. "Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness" (John 8:12). Are you stumbling through life, frightened, confused, and discouraged, first by this thing and then by that thing? Jesus provides the light of life and peace and joy can be found when we discipline ourselves to look to the light, gaining courage even though we exist in a dark world.

If you want to be assured of Heaven forever and the presence of God in your life 24/7, and you believe His message, ask Him right now to come into your life as your Savior for sin, past, present, and future. Tell Him that you believe that His sacrificial death for you served as payment for your sin. Receive His gift of forgiveness for your sins.

You know Karl Menninger, the famed psychiatrist, once said that if he could convince the patients in psychiatric hospitals that their sins were forgiven, 75 percent of them could walk out the next day![fn] You do not need a psychiatrist or anyone else to convince you that your sins will be forgiven.

Just believe what God tells you in the Bible: that if you believe that Jesus died and came back to life to take the penalty for your sins, you are forgiven (Romans 10: 9, 10).

When you do that you will become a member of the kingdom of Heaven with all the privileges and benefits of being part of that royal family. Now listen to what those dunderheads in Jesus’ time said in response to this gracious, merciful promise.

John 8:13 NAS:
13 So the Pharisees said to Him, “You are testifying about Yourself; Your testimony is not true.”

This is proof of the pudding of what we said earlier. No matter what Jesus said or did, He could heal the blind and lame one right after the other, or He could walk on water, or turn water into wine, or speak with the love, compassion, and eloquence of an angel, and yet a committed fool would not give up what they wanted to believe for their own selfish purposes in spite of all the wonders and miracles they saw and heard. How powerful must be the lure of Satan.

Imagine the sun telling the world that it provides light and the world saying back to the sun, “Sun, what you said is not true. You don’t produce any light.” How ridiculous. The sun does not need anyone else to support the reality that it provides light to the earth. Such truth is self-evident. Because of the things Jesus has done, because of the reason He has done them and to whom He has given the glory, and because the wisdom of His teaching is so far superior to that of man, Jesus has provided adequate evidence that He has been sent from Heaven as the spokesman of God.

But in spite of these continuing insults toward His personal character and honesty, Jesus did not tell them what they could do with their opinion, like some of us might. Instead He tried to show them that what He was teaching could not just be about Him. After all, Jesus never uttered a word that was not from God or pointing to the glory of God. He never claimed to be the Big Man. He was always pointing toward the glory of the One who sent Him and His main objective was to help people see the light that would lead them out of the dark tunnel surrounding them.

John 8:14-18 NAS:
14 Jesus answered and said to them, “Even if I testify 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.
15 “You judge according to the flesh; I am not judging anyone.
16 “But even if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone in it, but I and the Father who sent Me.
17 “Even in your law it has been written that the testimony of two men is true.
18 “I am He who testifies about Myself, and the Father who sent Me testifies about Me.”

Jesus made it clear that their witness was not dependable because their judgment was faulty. They judged on the basis of externals, mere human judgment, but He judged on the basis of supernatural knowledge. The way they judged the woman taken in adultery proved that they neither understood the Law nor their own sinful motives.[fn] When the Pharisees demand proof of Jesus’ claims, Jesus points out that God, His Father, has already testified—through the miracles He has performed--that He is the promised Messiah. [fn] The witness of the Father at Christ’s baptism and transfiguration are further proof of who Jesus is.

Jesus tells these Pharisees that if they think He is just a mere man, they should pay attention to His teaching and the miracles He has performed over and over again. If they would do that the evidence would make it clear that no such wisdom and power could come from any source other than God. We need to keep in mind that Jesus came not to do His own will, but the will of his Father.

John 6:38-40 (NLT) :
38 For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will.
39 And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day.
40 For it is my Father’s will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day.”

Jesus came as a witness of those things which He had seen and known in Heaven and no man could judge those things because no man had seen them. Remember what Nicodemus asked?

John 3:9-11 (NLT):
 9 “How are these things possible?” Nicodemus asked.
10 Jesus replied, “You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don’t understand these things?
11 I assure you, we tell you what we know and have seen, and yet you won’t believe our testimony.

Because Jesus came from Heaven; because He knew His Father's will; because He had seen the eternal world, and known the wisdom of His Father, so His testimony was trustworthy. Because they had not seen and known these things, they were not qualified to judge.[fn]

Having the light of Christ will determine where we spend eternity. No concern or need is more urgent than that. Without it we will walk into eternal darkness.

 

Many Will Believe In Him
John 8:18-30

Have you ever noticed that our culture seems to be filled with skeptics—people who do not believe in anything, perhaps other than that there is nothing to believe in? Anxiety is the number one psychiatric diagnosis in our country. At the root of anxiety is a lack of a sense of security. There is nothing these people can really believe in, so they feel anxious about everything and feel they cannot lean on or trust in anything. People may take Xanax or Valium, or get drunk to cover up that sense of uncertainty. Yet deep inside, each person has a desire and a need to believe in something. To try to meet that need many individuals pick out some strange things to believe in: a rock group, the stock market, offbeat ideas, government programs, all the time passing up the real Source of security. People in Christ’s time struggled with this skepticism as well. With that thought in mind let us continue our study in John chapter eight.

John 8:19-22 NAS:
19 So they were saying to Him, “Where is Your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither Me nor My Father; if you knew Me, you would know My Father also.”
20 These words He spoke in the treasury, as He taught in the temple; and no one seized Him, because His hour had not yet come.
21 Then He said again to them, “I go away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come.”
22 So the Jews were saying, “Surely He will not kill Himself, will He, since He says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?”

Can it be that in all this time that Jesus has been teaching in various parts of the region, these Pharisees did not understand that Jesus was referring to God when He spoke of His Father? Apparently that is exactly the situation because they were looking around for His earthly father, asking Jesus if His father was somewhere in the crowd where He could be asked to verify what Jesus is saying. It seems obvious based on their ignorance of what Jesus is saying that they not only refused to accept what He was teaching but that they could not have known nor understood God either. They had developed their own religion by creating their own laws and rituals whereby they no longer had a true knowledge of God from their own Old Testament writings. If they had known the true God they would have recognized the revelation of God in the person of Jesus.

John 1:14,18 NLT:
14 So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.
18 No one has ever seen God. But the one and only Son is himself God and is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.

John 14:7-9 NLT:
7 If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do know him and have seen him!”
8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.”
9 Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you?

No one seized Jesus even though He continued teaching that He was God and had been sent by God to teach the will of God and reveal God to the world. No one seized Him simply because, as John repeatedly pointed out, Jesus was working on God’s time schedule to accomplish His Father’s will. Nothing would happen to Jesus until God’s prescribed time for His crucifixion arrived.[fn] You see, nothing could have happened to Jesus during the entire time of His ministry on earth because God can control everything. He can control people. He can control the weather. He can control nature, and everything else as well.

This is good to remember if we ever become concerned with the danger involved in serving God. Many people worry about what will happen to them in various situations. Some even worry about what will happen to them if the Tribulation begins while they are still alive.  Do not worry about such things because God will protect all believers in such situations. They may experience suffering, trials, and even death, but God will make certain that you never suffer more than you can bear. We can say with confidence, “My time is in the hands of God alone, and what better place for it to be.” And better in His hands than in our own. Jesus’ hour had not yet come, because his work was not done. To all God’s purposes there is a time.

But Jesus knew that there was not much time left before His time to be crucified would come, so He wanted these Pharisees to understand that their opportunity to trust and believe in Him and His message was short. He would soon be going back to His Father and they could not follow Him there. Do you remember what Jesus said back in John 7:33-34 NLT?

33“I will be with you only a little longer. Then I will return to the one who sent me.
34 You will search for me but not find me. And you cannot go where I am going.”

When Jesus tells them in John 8:21 that they will die in their sin, He is predicting His crucifixion. If they reject Him and do not believe His message, they cannot be saved and will die in their sins. Just as today if you refuse to believe in Jesus and then die, there is no hope for you. They will have had the opportunity for salvation, but will have rejected it. Their eternity would therefore be spent in Hell. In John 16:9 (NLT), Jesus says: “The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me.” They would “die” because they continued living with their own sin, remaining under its power. Their physical death would be the beginning of eternal separation from God.

Without this faith in Jesus we cannot be saved from the power of sin and therefore will continue in that state to the last. Nothing but God’s grace through our faith in Christ’s atoning death will provide the power necessary to forgive our sins and give us the Holy Spirit who will ensure our entrance into Heaven totally cleansed of all sin forever. Such a gift is given only to those who believe in Christ. Without such faith we will die in our sins. Unbelief is the damning sin; it is a sin against the solution offered in love and grace by God. Believers die in Christ and are therefore saved from dying in their sins.

“Will he kill himself?” It is difficult to know whether this question was asked from ignorance or as the result of their hatred and contempt while they taunted Jesus. The Jews had continually accused Jesus of being a deceiver; that He had broken the law of Moses; that He is mad and demon-possessed, and because they had taunted Him with all these insults, it is probable they now made fun of Him suggesting that He was going to kill Himself thereby going somewhere they could not go and follow Him.  

In spite of the continued taunting, ridicule, and rejection by many of the Jews, Jesus continued to teach in patient kindness to those few who did believe Him. This can be an example to us to continue telling others about the message of Jesus, notwithstanding opposition, because a few will be saved.  We see here the remarkable patience that Jesus demonstrated in enduring the contradiction of unbelieving hecklers. We see that He accepted their contempt without retaliating. Another good lesson we might learn from His example.[fn]

These Jewish leaders questioned, very likely in a taunting fashion in front of Jesus, if He would commit suicide and thus be unreachable. Once again, the people misunderstood His teaching. Some may have actually thought He was planning to kill Himself and made fun of Him for that. Others may have just used the suicide suggestion as a way of taunting Jesus. Suicide to Jews was a punishable act, for the Jews were taught to honor all life. The Bible does not directly condemn suicide but rather treats it as an indication of moral failure.[fn] If Jesus committed suicide, some Jews believed Jesus would go to a place of judgment; and this, they reasoned, was why they could not follow Him.

Actually just the opposite was true. They were the ones who had nothing stable to believe in.  They were the ones who would be going to the place of judgment. Jesus was returning to His Father in Heaven, and nobody can go there who has not trusted in Jesus as their Savior. Jesus came from Heaven and it was to Heaven He would return. These Jews were from the earth. They did not know God, and they were not willing to listen to the message Jesus brought from God concerning salvation and eternal life. They would therefore not be able to get into Heaven where Jesus was going, and they would die in their sins, which results in eternal Hell.

Acts 4:12 NLT:
12 There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”

So many people in the world today share the same feeling that many Jews had for Jesus when He spoke to them directly. They hate Jesus and they hate any one who believes His message. But one day in the future, perhaps in a dying moment, they will look for a Savior to believe in and not be able to find Him because it is too late.

In His prayer the night of the Last Supper, Jesus prayed to His Father for His followers, saying:

14 I have given them your word. And the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.
15 I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one.
16 They do not belong to this world any more than I do. (John 17:14-16 NLT)

Think about the similarities between the Jews here in Jesus’ day and those who reject His message today. They found any trivial objection they could to contradict what Jesus was saying. People use that same tactic today. Rather than allowing all the evidence to be presented and then studying and evaluating it, most people then and now immediately reject what does not agree with their pre-conceived ideas. Many in Jesus’ day did not want to believe the Messiah would be a gentle, loving teacher who brought a message directly from God. Neither did they want someone who was going to interfere with their selfish interests for money and power. They wanted a conquering military hero who would restore the power and prestige of Israel and provide them with opportunities for even greater power and riches. Today many people do not want to believe in a God who would send anyone to Hell. They do not want to believe in a God who would be judgmental toward those who had abortions, practiced homosexuality, or wanted to fulfill all the selfish desires of their heart. They want a god who will wink at such things. They want a god of tolerance. So both then and now people will find any excuse possible to get what they want for themselves. But the kind of “god” they are looking for is wishy-washy and unpredictable. What we really need is a God who is stable, consistent, just, strong, and unchangeable—a God we can count on.

We find it incredibly foolish for people to criticize a man who brings nothing but good news to them for their consideration. There was nothing in Jesus’ nature that suggested He desired anything for Himself. He always referred to His mission as being a messenger from God, and there was nothing that He did or said that would contradict that truth. He never taught anything that was not consistent with the Old Testament Scripture. Further, He could prove who He was by the miracles God enabled Him to perform as well as the prophecies that were fulfilled by Him in accordance with the predictions of Scripture. In addition we are sure that if they had looked into Jesus’ face they would have seen the glory of God shining there.

If they knew God, loved God and honored Him, they could not help but treating Jesus the same way. In every way Jesus reflected the nature of God. Jesus was right when He said that they neither knew Him or His Father. According to Psalm 76:1 God was to be honored in Israel. These Jews did not honor God because they did not really know Him. People today do not honor Him because they do not know Him either. No one is as incurably blind as the person who absolutely refuses to see.

Let us read again Jesus’ words to Phillip about who He is and the call to believe in Him.

John 14:9-11 NLT:
9 Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you?
10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me.
11 Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or at least believe because of the work you have seen me do.

John 8:23-30 NAS:
23 And He was saying to them, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world.
24 “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”
25 So they were saying to Him, “Who are You?” Jesus said to them, “What have I been saying to you from the beginning?
26 “I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and the things which I heard from Him, these I speak to the world.”
27 They did not realize that He had been speaking to them about the Father.
28 So Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me.
29 “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.”
30 As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him.

This comparison Jesus makes, saying He is from above and they are from below, was just another way of His telling them that He came from Heaven and knew what Heaven was like. They were from the world and did not know what Heaven was like. Therefore His desires and affections were for the things of Heaven while their desires and affections were for the things of this world. So then, how could they expect to go where He will be going when the things they want are so directly opposite of those things Jesus values? Jesus had no interest in the world’s wealth or power. He had no interest in the things that satisfied lustful pleasures. He was totally consumed by heavenly and divine pursuits. If they were not born again into a similar manner of thinking and living, they would not be able to enter Heaven.

Having come from Heaven Jesus knew God, and God had sent Him to tell the people of the world what God and Heaven were like. That made Jesus a far greater authority regarding God and Heaven than anyone from the world.

I like the way James describes this in James 3:15-17 NLT:

15 For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.
16 For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind.
17 But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere.

So when Jesus told them again that they would die in their sins if they did not believe He was from God, He knew what He was talking about, and He wanted them to believe Him so that they could be saved. But again because they did not know God the Father they seemed incapable of recognizing God the Son. There must have been very special qualities about Jesus that would make Him unlike any other earthly mortal. Surely if people would have paid attention to Him and the things He came to teach they would have known He was from Heaven.

Verse 26 of John 8: “I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true.” Jesus is saying that if they do not believe in Him, the day is coming when He will judge many of the things they have done and this judgment will be the result of their dying in their sins. But what He is trying to get them to understand at this time is that He is telling them the things the Father told Jesus He should tell them.

Because these leaders either could not or would not accept Jesus’ teaching, Jesus’ identity remained a mystery to them. So in verse 28 Jesus told them that they would not realize that He was the Messiah until He is “lifted up,” which means crucified on a cross. Then they will realize who He really was (John 3:14; 12:32). But even when presented with that kind of evidence many will still not accept Him or His teaching. Again the reason for this is that they did not know the Father and therefore they could not accept the Son.

The word translated “lifted up” has a dual meaning: “lifted up in crucifixion,” and “lifted up in exaltation and glorification.” Jesus often combined the two, for He saw His crucifixion in terms of glory and not just suffering.[fn] This statement was also the first indication He gave of how He would die and who would be responsible for His death. They would have been better able to understand who Jesus was if they had been familiar with their own Old Testament prophecy in Isaiah which predicted Christ‘s crucifixion.

Isaiah 52:14--53:12 NLT:
14 But many were amazed when they saw him. His face was so disfigured he seemed hardly human, and from his appearance, one would scarcely know he was a man.
15 And he will startle many nations. Kings will stand speechless in his presence. For they will see what they had not been told; they will understand what they had not heard about.

1 Who has believed our message? To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm?
2 My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him.
3 He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care.
4 Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins!
5 But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.
6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.
7 He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth.
8 Unjustly condemned, he was led away. No one cared that he died without descendants, that his life was cut short in midstream. But he was struck down for the rebellion of my people.
9 He had done no wrong and had never deceived anyone. But he was buried like a criminal; he was put in a rich man’s grave.
10 But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him and cause him grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands.
11 When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins.
12 I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier, because he exposed himself to death. He was counted among the rebels. He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.

The cross would reveal that Jesus was God’s Word to mankind and that what He tried to teach them was just what His Father taught Him. So in spite of widespread unbelief and official rejection, the ministry of Jesus did bring many to faith (John 7:31).

Jesus boldly made several claims to be deity (John 8:28). He said He would judge, and judgment (to the Jews) belonged only to God. He claimed to be sent by God, and He claimed to have heard from God the things that He taught. How did the religious leaders respond to these clear affirmations of deity? They did not understand. God reveals His truth to the “babes” and not to the “wise and prudent” (Luke 10:21).

It would be in His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension that Jesus would be revealed to the Jewish nation. This was the message Peter preached at Pentecost (Acts 2), not only the death of Jesus but also His resurrection and exaltation to glory. Even a Roman soldier, beholding the events at Golgotha would confess, “Truly this Man was the Son of God” (Mark 15:39). The early church, following the example of their Lord  (Luke 24:25–27), would show from the Old Testament prophecies both the sufferings and the glory of the Messiah.

Jesus made two more amazing claims: not only was He sent by the Father, but the Father was with Him because He always did what pleased the Father. It might appear to them that Jesus was alone but because of His complete obedience to God, God was right there with Jesus at all times providing Him with all the support and strength He needed to do what the Father sent Him to do. No doubt His enemies reacted violently to these words; but some of the listeners put their faith in Him. Whether this was true saving faith or not (see John 2:23–25), we cannot tell; but Jesus’ words to them would indicate that they knew what they were doing. How could some people resist what must have been a presence that conveyed supernatural qualities reflecting the glory of Heaven itself? You may recall what was reported concerning the death of Stephen when he was brought before the high council in Acts 6:15 NLT:

15 At this point everyone in the high council stared at Stephen, because his face became as bright as an angel’s.

Because of the constant presence of God with Jesus, there must have been something similarly captivating about Jesus’ appearance and behavior that was obvious to many of the people.

Salvation is a matter of life or death. People who live in their sins and reject the Savior must die in their sins. There is no alternative. We either receive salvation by grace or experience condemnation under God’s Law. We either walk in the light and have eternal life, or walk in the darkness and experience eternal death.[fn]

In this world where so many things are tentative and it’s hard to know what you can believe in, you can believe this evidence that Jesus is indeed God’s Son who brought salvation to us. Commercials may mislead you, the stock market may crash, politicians may all prove corrupt, philosophies have their fallacies, but “the Word of the Lord remains forever” (1 Peter 1:24-25). The God of Heaven Himself, the One who created this whole world, stands with open arms calling you to believe in Him, just as He called these Jewish people years ago to believe in Him.

While Jesus’ words of reprimand may sound boastful or uncaring at times, Scripture makes it clear that the Pharisees and others who chose to reject him had been given ample evidence to believe:

·           His miracles and acts of compassion
·           His remarkable prophetic gift (see John 4:19, 29)
·           His irrefutable teachings (see John 7:46; Matthew 22:46)
·           His faultless character (John 8:29; see Acts 10:38)

Even as Jesus warned the Jews about the consequences of their unbelief, “many … believed in him” (John 8:30).[fn] So let us never stop teaching those same things Jesus taught during His earthly ministry. The promise is still that “many will believe in Him.” We trust that each of you is one of those “many.”

 

The Truth Will Make You Free
John 8:31-47

Once every two years many of us go to the polls to vote for candidates seeking political office. Those that are victorious exercise a great deal of power to determine the fate of our country as well as our individual lives. It is therefore imperative that we cast our vote for those candidates that will best represent what we value and govern in the best interests of the people. So how do we determine which candidates will do that? Do we listen to and make up our minds based on all the promises they make while campaigning? Based on what politicians have promised and then actually delivered after election, we might find better odds in Las Vegas.

What then is the best way for us to determine whether we can believe them and what they will actually do if they are elected? We suggest to you that the best way to know a person’s believability, integrity, honesty, and future performance is to gain as much information as we can of their past. Where did they come from? What is their family background? What about their schooling? What activities did they participate in while growing up? What kind of relationship do they have with God? What is their current relationship with their wife and children? What experience have they had that will prepare them for the position they are seeking? What is their political history? How have they voted on issues in the past? What organizations have they supported? Do they support the constitution?

Once we have answers to these and other questions we will be better able to understand how they might serve our nation. I encourage everyone to find out as much as they can about each candidates history.

Jesus was not running for political office, but He was carrying with Him the most important message that the world would ever hear. Some believed Him and many ignored Him. Others refused to even listen to Him because of their own false sense of pride. However, if these Jews would have given Jesus the same careful background check that would identify which politician could be trusted, they could not have rejected Jesus or His message. We have already determined that Jesus’ character and background substantiate His claim that He was sent by God. Jesus possessed the following credentials:

Ø His miracles and acts of compassion verified His claims.
Ø His remarkable prophetic gift (see John 4:19, 29).
Ø His irrefutable teachings (see John 7:46; Matthew 22:46).
Ø His faultless character (John 8:29; see Acts 10:38).

But in spite of all these things that supported Jesus’ statement that He was the One promised throughout the Old Testament to come from God, many refused to believe. As we continue now in John chapter 8, we will see Jesus continue in persistently trying to help the doubters believe so that they will not “die in their sins.” You will recall that Jesus warned them in John 8:24 NLT: “That is why I said that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I Am who I claim to be, you will die in your sins.” We will also see as well the exceptional power that Satan wields over the people of this world to prevent them from even listening to the message of salvation. It is a grave mistake to underestimate this formidable enemy. Mankind alone cannot prevent his controlling their lives. As we look in again on this scene we find Jesus speaking to those Jews that did believe what He was saying.

John 8:31-41 NAS
 31 So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine;
32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."
33 They answered Him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, 'You will become free'?"
34 Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.
35 "The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever.
36 "So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.
37 "I know that you are Abraham's descendants; yet you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you.
38 "I speak the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father."
39 They answered and said to Him, "Abraham is our father." Jesus said to them, "If you are Abraham's children, do the deeds of Abraham.
40 "But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do.
41 "You are doing the deeds of your father." They said to Him, "We were not born of fornication; we have one Father: God."

Now let us take a closer look at this passage, starting with verse 31.

John 8:31-32 NAS:
31 So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine;
32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

What we have here is a statement by Jesus to those Jews who believed in Him that if they continue to listen to the message of the Gospel and put the principles learned into application in their lives, then they will know what is true and that truth will set them free from the slavery of sin and death. To be “free” in this context does not mean doing whatever one wants whenever one wants, but to live a disciplined and godly life being obedient to all that God has commanded us, which releases us from our bondage to sin so that the choices we make lead to what helps us rather than to what hurts us. All this can be found if we are only willing toreally be disciples (followers) of Jesus.[fn]

We cannot “know” the kind of truth Jesus is speaking about here by just understanding the concept of it. We must also experience the reality of Jesus’ words by putting them into practice. You cannot really know truth if you only read about it or hear about it. You must put it to work in your life so that you can feel it.

Continuing in the teaching of Jesus is the proof of the pudding. It is one thing to claim to be a follower of Jesus, but the real proof is whether a person continues to study Jesus’ teaching and allows that knowledge to change his or her life so that they become more like Jesus. The freedom that Jesus is referring to here is the freedom from the slavery of sin by which every unbeliever is held captive.

Romans 8:1-2 NAS:
1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

Freedom is freedom to be who God intended us to be. And the way to freedom is marked out by the words of Jesus Christ. Freedom will come only when we are set free from sin by allowing Christ’s Word to become part of us and make us more like Him.

When a person believes what Jesus teaches and begins living it, the Holy Spirit will come to reside in them giving them the power to resist sin. They are then no longer a slave to sin, as are unbelievers. Unbelievers have no choice but to sin. They remain captive to sin and will never be free of it without the cleansing that Jesus offers. You can deny it; you can ridicule it, you can call it intolerant; and you may hold any or all of these views until the day you die, but then instantaneously, in the blink of an eye, you will realize the terrible, eternal mistake you have made by rejecting the truth that could have set you free from your sin and an eternity in Hell. Please, we beg of you, do not let that happen. If you have not read the Bible, if you have not given the Word of God an opportunity to work in your life, please begin doing so today. And Betty and I are available to help you with any questions you might have. You may call us or contact us through our website: villagechurchofwheaton.org

Now let us move on to John 8:33 NAS:

33 They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, ‘You will become free’?”

“They” probably refers to the same unbelieving Jewish leaders who had opposed Jesus from the very beginning of John 8.[fn] As before, they did not understand His message. Jesus was speaking about true spiritual freedom, freedom from sin, but they were thinking about political freedom. Their claim that Abraham’s descendants had never been in bondage was certainly a false one that was refuted by the historical records in the Old Testament Scriptures. The Jews had been enslaved by seven mighty nations, as recorded in the Book of Judges. The ten Northern tribes had been carried away captive by Assyria, and the two Southern tribes had gone into seventy years of captivity in Babylon. And at the very time they were making this claim, the Jews were under the control of the Roman Empire. How difficult it is for proud religious people to admit both their failings and their needs.[fn]

John 8:34-36 NAS:
34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.
35 “The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever.
36 “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

Because the person who sins is not obeying Jesus’ words, that person has no contact with spiritual reality. Like the Pharisees, he or she may think all is well. But in fact that person is lost, separated from God, and doomed unless he or she turns to Christ for salvation. The person who chooses sin is bound by invisible chains. [fn]

Since no one is exempt from sinning, everyone must be a slave to sin. This applies to those of Abrahamic descent as well (Jews). There is an obvious contrast between a slave and a son in the rights that each possesses (verse 35), and this emphasizes the difference between bondage and freedom. The words you will be free indeed (verse 36) show that true freedom can come only through the Son.[fn]

Jesus explained that the difference between spiritual freedom and bondage is a matter of whether one is a son or a servant. The servant may live in the house, but he is not a part of the family; and he cannot be guaranteed a future. Whoever prefers to continue in sin is a servant of sin and cannot become part of the family of God. These religious leaders would not only die in their sins (John 8:21, 24), but they would live the rest of their lives as slaves to sin. They had no choice but to sin. They were slaves to their master, “sin,” and they had to obey their master. They had no choice; sinning was what their master commanded them to do. Unless they could break free from their master, “sin,” they would continue as slaves to it.

How can slaves of sin be set free? Only by the Son of God and through the power of His Word, and Jesus had already told them, “The truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). Jesus told His disciples at another time that He was the Truth (John 14:6). Jesus is the Truth that can set people free from sin. 

But these leaders would not listen to that truth. Perhaps they were so attached to their master, “sin,” thatthey did not want to leave it, but wanted to remain loyal to it because they enjoyed so much living under its control. Are there people who love being under the control of sin? Yes, and they are all around us just as they were all around Jesus in His day.

Jesus is the true Son and seed of Abraham according to Galatians 3:16 NAS: “God gave the promises to Abraham and his child. And notice that the Scripture doesn’t say ‘to his children, as if it meant many descendants. Rather, it says ‘to his child‘—and that, of course, means Christ.” Jesus remains in the house and is over it as we see in Hebrews 3:6 NAS: “But Christ, as the Son, is in charge of God’s entire house. And we are God’s house, if we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ.”

Slaves of sin can become truly free by becoming sons of God by faith in Christ, the Son.

In Galatians 3:26 NAS, Paul writes: “For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” So according to verse 35, the slave does not remain in the house forever but the son does.

Therefore God provides the opportunity for the slaves of sin to become sons of God and remain in the house forever. How extraordinary!

John 8:37-39 NAS:
37 “I know that you are Abraham’s descendants; yet you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you.
38 “I speak the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father.”
39 They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham.

In these verses you can see the debate centering around the word “father.” Jesus identified Himself with the Father in Heaven, but He identified them with Satan, the father of sin. The Jews claimed Abraham as their father. In Luke 3:8 NAS, Luke records the words of John the Baptist to the Jews that came to him for baptism: “Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. Don’t just say to each other, ‘We’re safe, for we are descendants of Abraham.’ That means nothing, for I tell you, God can create children of Abraham from these very stones.”

But Jesus made a careful distinction between “Abraham’s seed,” Abraham’sphysical descendants and “Abraham’s children,” his spiritual descendants because of their personal faith. Listen to what Paul told the Galatians in Galatians 3:1–9, 14 NAS:

1 Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross.
2 Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ.
3 How foolish can you be? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?
4 Have you experienced so much for nothing? Surely it was not in vain, was it?
5 I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ.
6 In the same way, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.”
7 The real children of Abraham, then, are those who put their faith in God.
8 What’s more, the Scriptures looked forward to this time when God would declare the Gentiles to be righteous because of their faith. God proclaimed this good news to Abraham long ago when he said, “All nations will be blessed through you.”
9 So all who put their faith in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith.

14 Through Christ Jesus, God has blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing he promised to Abraham, so that we who are believers might receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith.

These Jewish leaders, who claimed to be Abraham’s descendants, were very unlike Abraham. In John 8:40 Jesus says:

“But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do.  (NAS)

To begin with they wanted to kill Jesus; Abraham would have never wanted to do such a thing. Abraham was the “friend of God” according to Isaiah 41:8. Abraham listened to God’s truth and obeyed it, but these religious leaders rejected the truth. One’s basic nature and behavior patterns are largely determined genetically by birth and also by the environment in which one grows up.

If God is your Father, then you share God’s nature and behavior. But if Satan is your father, then you share in his nature and behavioral patterns.

Jesus said that the Pharisees and other counterfeit believers were the children of the devil. That is exactly what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11:13–15 NAS:

13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.
14 No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
15 Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.

Even in the Church today, Satan will work through pastors and other church leaders who claim to be devoted to Jesus. Satan gives his children a false righteousness, and that will never get them into Heaven.

Romans 10:1–4 NLT:
1 Dear brothers and sisters, the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved.
2 I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal.
3 For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law.
4 For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in him are made right with God.

Now can we identify some of the characteristics of these unbelieving religious leaders, which might suggest a family resemblance? For one thing, they rejected the truth (John 8:40) and tried to kill Jesus because He spoke the truth. They did not love God (John 8:42) nor could they understand what Jesus taught (John 8:43, 47). Satan’s children may be well versed in their religious traditions and rituals, but they have no understanding of the Word of God.[fn]

Satan is a liar and a murderer. He lied to Adam and Eve and engineered their deaths. Cain was a child of the devil (1 John 3:12), for he was both a liar and a murderer. He killed his brother Abel and then lied about it (Genesis 4). Is it any wonder that these religious leaders lied about Jesus, hired false witnesses, and then had Him killed?[fn]

The worst bondage is the kind that the prisoner himself does not recognize. He thinks he is free, yet he is really a slave. The Pharisees and other religious leaders thought that they were free, but they were actually enslaved in terrible spiritual bondage to sin and Satan. They would not face the truth, and yet it was the truth alone that could set them free.[fn]

John 8:41 NAS:
41 “You are doing the deeds of your father.” They said to Him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father: God.”

These Jewish leaders insist on the purity of their heritage: “children of Abraham” was equivalent in Jewish literature to “children of God” (Exodus 4:22), because they had come to believe that God had adopted them as Abraham’s descendants guaranteeing their salvation. You see they believed that because they were born into a Jewish family that automatically guaranteed their salvation.  Whereas the reality was that everyone individually must be saved by faith just as Abraham was. No one received a free pass based on his or her nationality.

They pleaded that they were Abraham’s sons (descendents). In this way they intended to give themselves prestige and special honor. They had forgotten their true history and the many times the nation had turned to idolatry and dishonored God by doing shameful things, and yet God continued to rescue them from one catastrophe after another.

How typical of those who are attempting to cover up the shame of the past to boast about what their ancestors were like and what they accomplished and how that must somehow make them special, when the truth is that their ancestors were wallowing in despair just as they are in the present day. Again the true test is not to talk about what you or your ancestors have done, but to show the evidence of what you or they have done.

John 8:42-47 NAS:
42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me.
43 “Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word.
44 “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
45 “But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me.
46 “Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me?
47 “He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God.”

Not even these Jewish leaders would argue against the fact that Satan was the original murderer (John 8:37, 40) as well as the original liar. He was the one who led mankind to lie and to murder. Jewish tradition stressed that his lie had led to Adam’s death (Genesis 3). Because these Jewish leaders want to kill Jesus and reject His truth, their behavior demonstrates similar personality and behavioral characteristics to their real father.

Jesus‘ position is right on target: If they were Abraham’s children, such children of Abraham as could claim an interest in the covenant God made with him and his seed, then they would do the kind of things Abraham did. God would perform what He had promised for Abraham’s descendants who kept the way of the Lord as Abraham did.

Genesis 18:19 NAS:
19 "For I have chosen him (meaning Abraham),[fn] so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him."

Only those who walked in faith as Abraham did would inherit the promise. How obvious it must have been that Jesus was the Son. We have already established His credentials and how honest He was. It is simply our choice. Do we want to believe in the truth or do we want to reject the truth. Have you believed in Jesus as the Truth that can set you free from sin and start you on a new path, a path full of life and hope? We have a Savior who gave us all we need to believe. Unlike the politicians we considered earlier, Jesus has a record of impeccable honesty. He was sent with a message from God for our best interests. Let us rejoice for those who receive it and may we pray for those who do not.

Anyone Who Keeps My Word
Will Never See Death
John 8:48-59

If you consider yourself to be a student of human behavior as we do, you may find it consistently odd, as we do, that people who have no reason for doing so often make themselves and their families out to be the salt of the earth even when it is obvious by their behavior that they are more like the refuse of the earth. That is exactly the type of behavior these Jews in chapter eight were demonstrating.

Most people want to be somebody and few people want to be nobody. So if you behave like a fool but do not want others to believe you are a fool, you will probably try to convince them by what you say that you are something better than what you actually are. So let us read about what was going on in:

John 8:48-59 NAS:
48 The Jews answered and said to Him, “Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?”
49 Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me.
50 “But I do not seek My glory; there is One who seeks and judges.
51 “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death.”
52 The Jews said to Him, “Now we know that You have a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets also; and You say, ‘If anyone keeps My word, he will never taste of death.’
53 “Surely You are not greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets died too; whom do You make Yourself out to be?”
54 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’;
55 and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word.
56 “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.”
57 So the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?”
58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.”
59 Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.

This is a tremendous passage which, using terms the Jews understood, clearly affirms the deity of Jesus Christ. You and I may not see it so clearly at first, but as we walk through the passage you will see how Jesus was communicating His deity to them, telling them He was God.

As we look at verse 48 we see that the Jewish leaders start off immediately by attacking Jesus and accusing Him of being possessed by a demon. Now, whenever the Jewish leaders wanted to make themselves feel that Jesus was a troublemaker they would accuse Him of either being a Samaritan or being possessed by a demon. Here they accuse Him of both.

Samaritans were a mixed race with a religion the Jews refused to accept. To call Jesus a Samaritan was an insult referring to a heretic, an unbeliever. Their charge that Jesus was demon-possessed[fn] suggested they thought He was mad, unclean, and evil. What caused them to make this accusation?

If we look back at the preceding verses, we see that Jesus had just told them that they were of their father the devil because they did not believe Jesus’ words and did not love Him. So they decided not to take this sitting down so to speak. They turn it right back on Jesus and call Him demon-possessed. They go on the defensive here. They reason that anyone who could compare themselves with Moses must be demon-possessed. They just do not seem capable of understanding the truth. Jesus’ behavior was most certainly not that of a demon-possessed man. And had they been willing to set aside their pre-conceived beliefs for a while they might have been able to see some truth in what Jesus was saying.

So how does Jesus answer their accusation? With truth, as He always did. He simply states He does not have a demon and that once again, as always, He seeks only to honor and glorify God without any kind of personal agenda whatsoever. And if they continued accusing Him of these false charges, the truth would ultimately be decided by the heavenly judge knowing that if the people were to judge Him falsely, His Father would reverse the verdict and exalt Him. Jesus’ answer only intensifies their anger because the implication is that Jesus is deity, that God is His Father. He is also saying that they are more interested in their own glory.

God in His bountiful wisdom has established a variety of ways to prove the validity of one’s faith, and what we see here is one of them. God sent His Son into the world equipped with enough credentials to prove He was the Son of God. You would not be able to present a logical argument against Jesus being who He claimed to be. The evidence was overwhelming, and it still is today for anyone who is willing to examine it.

You cannot study the Bible and come away without a clear understanding of who Jesus is.

Here in these verses from John 8, Jesus is proving that if these Jews were truly God’s children, then they would love Jesus. Jesus once again explains that He did not come on His own and that everything He has taught them has come from God the Father. He is stating that His aim is to glorify God (verse 49). Jesus has at no time sought after anything for Himself and that attitude should be evident to them. Jesus was sent by God. He came from God as an ambassador to the world of mankind. He did not come of himself.

Jesus’ repeated emphasis was that He came from God and that He was sent by God, as we see in the following passages.

John 8:42 NAS:
42 Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me.

John 13:3 NAS
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God, and was going back to God.

John 16:28 NAS
"I came forth from the Father, and have come into the world; I am leaving the world again, and going to the Father."

Jesus had both his credentials and his instructions from God. He came to gather the children of God together in one body.

John 11:47-52 NAS:
47 Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, "What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. 48 "If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation." 49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all, 50 nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish." 51 Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.

Jesus would not only unite the Jews but both Jews and Gentiles, in order to bring all the sons of Abraham to glory. Jesus came to unite all mankind together in Christ.

Hebrews 2:10 NAS:
God, for whom and through whom everything was made, chose to bring many children into glory. And it was only right that he should make Jesus, through his suffering, a perfect leader, fit to bring them into their salvation.

So here in chapter eight of John we see that when the Jewish leaders called Christ a Samaritan, they were also continuing to make the point that they had made earlier in the chapter, that they were descendants of Abraham. These Jews to whom Jesus is speaking wanted all the status, rewards, and recognition that went along with being descendants of Abraham. So over the years they changed God’s Law to suggest that if one was born of Jewish parentage they participated in all the benefits and promises that God gave to Abraham and his descendants. They believed that they were saved and were a part of God’s family simply because they were born into a family where their ancestors were Jewish. So even though they pursued satisfaction of their fleshly desires and idolatry, they still believed they were part of the family of God just as Abraham had been. But they were wrong because one cannot be part of the family of God unless they are obedient to God’s commands both in the way they behave and in the way they think. They were seeking glory and verse 50 shows how Jesus is a major contrast to them because He is not seeking glory for Himself.

Jesus had just finished making it clear (verses 39-47) that these Jewish leaders were seeking their own glory and that they preferred living their lives according to the doctrine of Satan and of the world. Their heritage therefore is not of God but of Satan and they demonstrate that heritage by behaving in a manner that is similar to the behavior of Satan. Therefore, they are not worthy to be called Jews or of inheriting the covenant that God made with Abraham and his descendants.

Even today many people tend to look to their heritage to give them status and glory. They think they rate because of their ancestors or the country they were born in. Individuals can boast about themselves and their family. They can massage the truth until it takes a form that makes them feel somewhat comfortable, but at the end of the day or the end of a life, it is not what you say about yourself that defines you but rather what you are. Jesus tried to explain this to them in as gentle a manner as was possible so that they might come to see this truth for themselves and make the necessary changes to bring them to true salvation and righteousness. Just as the Jews could not call themselves children of Abraham because of what they were really like, we cannot call ourselves followers of Jesus if we do not take a strong position against the evil that goes on in this world.

Do you vote when election time comes around? Whom did you vote for and why? It is not the purpose of the Church to tell people how to vote but we can tell you this. You cannot claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ and knowingly vote for political candidates who are openly corrupt or who do not support biblical values such as life, family, and purity. You cannot claim you are within the family of God and Jesus Christ and be tolerant of homosexual behavior and the mass murder of little babies who are in the final stages of development prior to birth. In the same way a candidate for a major political office cannot support abortion and homosexuality on the one hand and then expect me to believe he or she is a Christian. Those things do not go together and they can be nothing more than a bold-faced lie on the part of a dishonest candidate who will do whatever is necessary to get my vote.

You too have a father whose deeds you do and whose example you choose freely to follow. Be honest with yourself in a quiet time sometime today and identify who your father is, whose spirit you belong to, and whom you resemble. How does the saying go? “To thine own self be true.” [fn]

Jesus goes on in verse 51 to say, “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death.”  What does Jesus mean by “keep My word”? He means believe all that He taught and obey what He commanded. Then there is a tremendous promise: if you keep His word you will never see death. By this Jesus means spiritual death. A person who obeys Jesus will not be eternally separated from God (John 3:16; 5:24). But as usual the Jewish leaders misunderstood.

Be sure you do not misunderstand.

Pay attention to Christ’s call to repentance if you know you have made the wrong decision. Do something about it before it is too late. Make sure you have the right father and are in the right family by changing your heart and your direction if necessary. One who repents and accepts God’s provision for forgiveness will have forgiveness and be guaranteed salvation and eternal life that can never be lost.

Earlier, in verses 42 and 43, Jesus had told these Jews why they have no right to call God “Father.”

42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me.
43 “Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word.

First, they did not love Christ: “If God were your Father, you would love me.” Jesus proved their relation to Abraham was not true because of their intent to kill Jesus (verse 40). Jesus also proves, however, that their relationship with God is meaningless because they have not loved Christ and embraced Him as the promised Savior.

Anyone who truly loved God in Old Testament times would have been students of the Scripture and would have recognized Jesus from what the Scripture said about Him. They would have known He was from God.

If these Jews were applying for jobs as temple priests and this was their interview with the true God, their chances of being hired would become less likely every time they opened their mouths. It would have been obvious to God that they did not love Him because of the way they treated the Son He had sent to save them.

You see, all who truly embrace God as their Father would also have a true love for Jesus Christ. You cannot have one without the other. The kind of love they have for Him is in response to the gracious and merciful love Jesus has shown them. Because of this love that God both allows them to give and feel in return, there is a genuine commitment on the part of believers to His cause and kingdom. Perhaps most important of all, there is a devotion to keep His commandments, which is the clearest evidence of all of our love for Him.[fn]

When Jesus said that anyone who kept His word would never see death, the Jewish leaders thought they had Jesus and came right back at him: “Abraham and the prophets were holy men of God, but they all died; and you say if we obey you, we won’t die! That’s absurd!” But they did not understand that Jesus was speaking primarily of spiritual death. He is once again saying that the person who believes in Him has eternal life. If you look at the Greek grammar, their first question in John 8:53 expected a negative answer: “You are not greater than our father Abraham who died, are You?” The irony is that of course He is. But He had not come to proclaim His greatness.

Everyone except Jesus who has ever been born into this world has been born with a sin nature. We therefore find ourselves, according to law, under a sentence of death if we are not pardoned of that sin. That pardon, as we have repeatedly learned, can only be granted by the grace of God to the person who has confessed their sin and asked Christ to be their Savior. God knows our hearts and bases our pardon on that knowledge alone. However, when a person’s faith is real and sincere, it is going to be demonstrated in the values they hold and in the life they live. Christ taught His disciples this principle when He said,

Matthew 7:16-21, NAS
16 "You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they?
17 "Even so, every good tree bears good fruit; but the bad tree bears bad fruit.
18 "A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.
19 "Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
20 "So then, you will know them by their fruits.
21 "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.

So when someone sees a person who claims to love God yet who supports a woman’s right to have an abortion, they can see there is inconsistency between the words and the values actually held.

If you see a bishop in the Church claiming that he/she wants to teach you the truth found in the Bible and you soon discover that he/she supports same sex marriages, you can know that the bishop is a hypocrite because you cannot love God and support something God calls sin (Leviticus 18:22; Romans 1:26-32). Now you may be saying, “Well I don’t support that so I guess I’m OK.” This principle applies to many things in scripture including pornography (Job 31:1; 2 Corinthians 12:21), drunkenness (Romans 13:13; Ephesians 5:18), stealing or pilfering from your employer (Romans 2:21; Titus 2:9, 10), and gossiping (2 Corinthians 12:20; 1 Timothy 5:13). Truth can always be tested by the Bible because it is the one and only source of complete truth in this world. If a statement cannot be supported by the Bible’s “truth test,” it cannot be considered reliable.

These Jews to whom Jesus has been speaking are being tested to see who and what is the object of their love. During this time of testing it will be determined how they will respond to the object of their love. Jesus is about to show them whether or not their faith is real and whether they believe in the one and only God or an imposter, and He is going to use their very own Scripture in order to do so.

John 8:54, 55 NAS:
54 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’;
55 and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word.

We can see in these closing verses of John chapter eight, that these Jews have no love for God the Father because they have no love for His truth or for His Word, which promises the coming of His Son to offer salvation and eternal life. The only love they have is for themselves and they are willing to deny both God and Christ in order to attain their own wants and desires. They cannot accept the deep intimacy reflected in Jesus’ relationship and union with God. Christ could not deny this intimacy or else He would have been lying.

This would be a good time to look back to the words of John in John 3:31-36 NAS:

31 “He has come from above and is greater than anyone else. We are of the earth, and we speak of earthly things, but he has come from heaven and is greater than anyone else. 32 He testifies about what he has seen and heard, but how few believe what he tells them!33 Anyone who accepts his testimony can affirm that God is true.34 For he is sent by God. He speaks God’s words, for God gives him the Spirit without limit.35 The Father loves his Son and has put everything into his hands.36 And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment.”

The people who pretended to believe they were the people who belonged to the kingdom of God, knew nothing about the real kingdom of God nor its true nature. Rather they were more like strangers to the kingdom of God, and rude ones at that, because rather than embracing the message of God, which was in the form of Christ, they ridiculed it. By ridiculing the messenger of God they were at the same time ridiculing the message of God.

The ingrained refusal in the hearts of people to hear the Word of God through the messenger of God, Jesus Christ, is simply a reflection of the power Satan has in controlling the hearts and minds of unsaved people. Where there is no willingness to even hear the truth, there is little possibility of ever understanding the truth. Where a person has a sense that they do not want to even hear what God has to say, they have formed pre-conceived ideas that would not let them believe the truth even if it landed on the tip of their nose. Preconceived ideas of disbelief associated with Christ or Christianity or the doctrine of Christian faith is the true reason behind one’s ignorance of it. They do not like it or love it, and therefore they will refuse to consider it.

Without the Word of God no one can be saved. If a person is allowed to follow the dictates of their self-will from birth without any guidance from the Word of God, they will never have salvation and eternal life. That can only come from hearing and accepting the Word of God under the power of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 10:17 NAS
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

Hebrews 3:13 NAS
But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called "Today," lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Sinful practices and behavior will harden a person’s heart to the truth of God. But when that same person allows their heart to be open to the truth and will listen to the truth, then that person opens their heart and mind to the power of the Holy Spirit who offers salvation.

Romans 10:8-15 NAS:
8 In fact, it says, “The message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart.” And that message is the very message about faith that we preach:9 If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.11 As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced. ”12 Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on him.13 For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 14 But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?15 And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”

Returning to John 8 we see that having therefore disproved their relation both to Abraham and to God, Jesus tells them plainly whose children they were: "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father” (verse 44). If you do not belong to God, you belong to the Devil. Those are the only two families and all mankind belongs to one or the other. The question you have to answer for yourself is, which family are you going to be part of?

John 8:56-59 NAS:
56 “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.”
57 So the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?”
58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.”
59 Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.

The unbelieving Jews were not Abraham’s descendants spiritually (verse 39). But here when Jesus referred to “your father Abraham,” He meant they were physically related to him. Christ affirmed that, “Abraham rejoiced to see My day.” By that He meant the messianic salvation which God promised (“all peoples on earth will be blessed through you”--Genesis 12:3). Abraham by faith was granted a son Isaac, through whom the Seed (Christ) would come. How much of the messianic times God revealed to His friend Abraham is unknown. But it is clear that he knew of the coming salvation and he rejoiced in knowing about it and expecting it.

This is a remarkable prophecy.

The unbelievers objected that one so young (not yet 50 years old) could not have seen Abraham (Nothing should be inferred about Jesus’ age from this remark). They could not understand how Abraham and Jesus could have possibly had any visual contact.
Jesus then affirmed His superiority over the prophets and Abraham. Abraham came into being; but when he was born, Jesus already existed. “I Am” is a title of Deity.[fn]  Again the Jews understood that Jesus was claiming deity by using this title of Himself. They were horrified because they considered this to be blasphemy of the worst sort. That is why they picked up stones so that they could kill Him. Stoning was the normal punishment for this sin. Yet they could not succeed, because no one could take Jesus’ life from Him until it was the right time for Him to lay it down for Himself (John 10:16, 18). The words, but Jesus hid Himself, could refer to a supernatural means of escape. Once again His time had not yet come.[fn]

As we reflect on this passage that so clearly describes the deity of Christ it reminds us of a story about a man named Rob Cutshaw who owned a little roadside shop outside Andrews, North Carolina.

“Like many in the trade, he hunted for rocks, then sold then to collectors or jewelry makers. He knew enough about rocks to decide which to pick up and sell, but he was no expert. He left the appraising of his rocks to other people. As much as he enjoyed the work, it didn’t always pay the bills. He occasionally moonlighted, cutting wood to help put bread on the table.

“While on a dig in the late 1960s, Rob found a rock he described as "purdy and big." He tried unsuccessfully to sell the specimen, and reportedly, kept the rock under his bed or in his closet. He guessed the blue chunk could bring as much as $500 dollars, but he would have taken less if something urgent came up like paying his power bill. That's how close Rob came to selling for a few hundred dollars what turned out to be the largest, most valuable sapphire ever found. The blue rock that Rob had abandoned to the darkness of a closet many years ago -- now known as "The Star of David" sapphire -- weighs nearly a pound, and could easily sell for $2.75 million.”[fn] 

Rob Cutshaw had a treasure in the middle of his house and never realized it. It is so sad that here in their midst, the Jews had this wonderful treasure and they refused to realize it. God incarnate, God Himself in the form of Jesus Christ, was walking and talking with them. What an opportunity to glorify God and exalt His name for all the marvelous things He was doing through Jesus Christ. But what did they do? Instead they condemned Christ and tried to kill Him. But His time had not yet come. He had more to do before the Cross. Oh, how much He loves us!

REVIEW: JOHN 1-8

As I look back over my life, as I sometimes do, I wonder how I managed to make so many bad choices. The one thing I wanted more than anything in life while growing up was to go to the Air Force Academy, become a flier, and maybe one day work as a pilot for a major airline.

That dream was never realized because I found out in high school that my eyesight was not 20/20 which was a requirement at the time for admission to the academy. I was quite discouraged after that and I just could not come up with anything that could fill that void in my life. I entered college in a business administration program at the University of Illinois and played football. I had been active in sports all through high school and although I enjoyed it very much, it seemed as if I had lost direction in my life, and after my first year of college I dropped out and went to work. I worked for a year-and-a-half and discovered I was not going anywhere without a college education, so I went back to school at Elmhurst College. After graduation I took a job as a management trainee and immediately became locked into the kind of work and lifestyle that I would always regret.

Although I had gone to Sunday School and church as a small boy, I became a confirmed atheist in high school and college and remained an atheist until my mid-forties. In all the time I had gone to church and Sunday school I never once heard the message of the Gospel preached and I never heard it for twenty-five years after I got out of college.

I plunged into my work after college because I was driven to be a success in whatever I was doing. I often worked 12-hour days. I did spend time with my family but my primary focus was on me and my success. I very much regret that to this day. The success in business came but success in marriage did not. After fifteen years there was a divorce and then a lot of emptiness. I was miserable and yet the business success continued and the money was pouring in. I continued making poor choices until one day God finally got my attention by taking away everything I had accumulated in material wealth. Because of a failed business venture I had to liquidate everything I owned to avoid bankruptcy. I was broke.

This brought on a need I had never felt before, a need for help from someone much more powerful than any human source I was aware of. One night I got down on my knees, if you can imagine an atheist down on his knees, and I asked God for help if He was there. That began a journey that one day would lead me into the Kingdom of God by accepting Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

In a couple of weeks I walked into a church where I heard the message of salvation for the first time. I spoke with the pastor after the service to let him know how eager I was to find out if God was truly real. He personally mentored me for the next couple of years until I finally made that commitment of faith.

A few years after that I met Betty and that was truly an unexpected and undeserved gift from God. I regret many of the things I have done even in our marriage, but it is a whole different ballgame when your relationship is grounded in Jesus Christ and His saving grace. When I have decisions to make today Betty and I pray about them first and also seek the counsel and prayer of others. I still struggle with feelings of guilt and regret but I am making a serious effort to get the help I need to make positive changes. Life is tough and it can be very tough for those who are deeply committed to God.

Betty and I have forgiven each other for those things we have needed to ask forgiveness for. Actually I have done most of the asking. This is the way God meant relationships to be between Christians and He set a wonderful example by forgiving all of our sins. That is why He sent His Son to die for us. If He was willing to do that, should we not be willing to forgive others as well as ourselves for our own sins, if we have repented and live in a way as to not repeat those sins? The answer is that we should, but for whatever reason many of us continue to beat ourselves up for things that we did 10, 20, 40, or more years ago. We spend a lot of unnecessary time in a state of depression if we cannot let go of guilt and that minimizes our effectiveness for Christ when we exist in such an emotional state.

What caused me to enter a life of hopelessness when I was a teenager? It was not because I did not get an appointment to the Air Force Academy. It was because I did not have a relationship with Jesus Christ. I did not have an understanding of what life was really all about, or what was necessary in a time of desperate need. And you know that is probably the condition of most of the people in our country and our world who have not heard and accepted the Gospel message of salvation. This is not just a recent development in the emotional condition of mankind. In fact this was the same condition that mankind was in when Jesus came upon the scene in the first century. They were lost. They were living in darkness and thought they were living in the light. They thought they had attained a special knowledge through their own wisdom. They sought pleasure in many different ways, many of which were self-destructive and also destructive to those around them.  So what was it that Jesus had to offer people in such a condition? He offered light to show them the way to happiness and eternal life. He offered them a new way of living so they would know what it meant to be forgiven.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus shows us what the Jews back then needed and what all of us need as well today. And then He shows us how to go about getting it.

Before we begin our study in John chapter nine we might want to take a quick review of the focus of attention in this Gospel and make sure we understand clearly what it is Jesus wants us to know, and in so doing be capable of establishing an even more personal relationship with Him. So let us go back to chapter 1 of John and try to highlight the points of emphasis.

Chapter 1

Jesus is the light of the world. He brings light into the darkness that so many people have been living in for so long.

John 1:4-5 NAS:
4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.
5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

John 1:9 NAS:
9 There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.

This light will bring grace and truth in order to understand how to live life to its fullest. No one in this world has ever seen God other than Jesus. He, therefore, is the only One that can explain God to us, and that is why God sent Him.

John 1:14 NAS:
14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:17 NAS:
17 For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

It was John the Baptist who was given the responsibility of bearing witness for Jesus. He verified to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah. John the Baptist was a prophet who had been commissioned by God to introduce Jesus as the Messiah to the Jews.

John 1:23 NAS:
23 He said, "I am A VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS, 'MAKE STRAIGHT THE WAY OF THE LORD,' as Isaiah the prophet said."

John 1:32-34 NAS:
32 John testified saying, "I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him. 33 "I did not recognize Him , but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, 'He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.' 34 "I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God."

Chapter 2

 In order to help His listeners understand that He was the Messiah, Jesus also performed a number of miracles. The first of these took place at the wedding feast at Cana where Jesus turned water into wine.

John 2:11 NAS:
11 This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.

Chapter 3

Jesus advised Nicodemus, one of the Jewish rulers, of the need for a new birth in order to receive salvation and eternal life. This was new news that all people everywhere needed to hear. This was the way to the salvation that God was offering the world and it could only come when a person was reborn through the life-giving cleansing blood of a perfect Savior.

John 3:3,5 NAS:
3 Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."
5 Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

John 3:19-21 NAS:
19 "This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. 20 "For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 "But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God."

John 3:31-36 NAS:
31 "He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. 32 "What He has seen and heard, of that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony. 33 "He who has received His testimony has set his seal to this, that God is true. 34 "For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure. 35 "The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. 36 "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."

 

Chapter 4

Jesus then left Judea and returned to Galilee by going through Samaria, where He meets a Samaritan woman at a well. Here we first see Jesus presenting the message of salvation to someone who is not Jewish. He tells her He has the power to give her “living water,” which is the gift of the Holy Spirit as a confirmation of salvation.

John 4:10, 11, 14 NAS:
10 Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."

11 She said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water?

14 [Jesus said] whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."

Jesus then makes another reference to spirit and truth.

John 4:23,24 NAS:
23 "But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. 24 "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

When we accept Jesus as our Savior we are joined with Him in spirit. In other words our spirit and Jesus’ spirit become one when we accept the truth that He brings in His message. We belong to Him and He belongs to us and we are now inseparable. And then there is another reference revealing that He comes as a servant of God to accomplish God’s will and not His own.

John 4:34 NAS:
34 Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.

Then many of the people from the city came to believe in Jesus when they heard Him teach.

John 4:41-42 NAS:
41 Many more believed because of His word; 42 and they were saying to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world."

So Jesus makes it clear that His message is available to all the people of the world, not just the Jews. Anyone who believes and trusts in the promises of God and the work of Christ can be saved by faith alone.

Then another miracle was performed as Jesus entered Cana. Because of the faith of the royal official, Jesus healed his son from a terminal disease.

John 4:47,53 NAS:
47 When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and was imploring Him to come down and heal his son; for he was at the point of death.
53 So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, "Your son lives"; and he himself believed and his whole household.

Chapter 5

After this Jesus headed to the festival in Jerusalem. He would continue performing miracles and this time it would be for a man who had been a paralytic for thirty-eight years. Jesus healed the man instantly. What a reason for joy and celebration. But that is not the way the Jews reacted to this miracle. They were outraged that Jesus would perform such an act on the Sabbath. Again they made it obvious that they did not know God or the purpose of His Law. They were even more outraged when Jesus compared Himself with God and they wanted to kill Him. But once again Jesus lends proof to His claims.

John 5:19,24,30,46,47 NAS:
19 Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.

24 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

30 "I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

46 "For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me.
47 "But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?"

Chapter 6

Another miracle. The feeding of the 5,000 with five barley loaves and two fish took place during Passover.

John 6:11,14 NAS:
11 Jesus then took the loaves, and having given thanks, He distributed to those who were seated; likewise also of the fish as much as they wanted.

14 Therefore when the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, "This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world."

But Christ admonished them, John 6:27, 29
27 "Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal."
29 Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent."

Jesus performed yet another miracle while at Capernaum.

John 6:19 NAS:
19 Then, when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near to the boat.

Jesus then repeats that He is the bread of life; He alone is the source of eternal life and those who internalize the message that He brings (the bread of life), will be freely given that gift of eternal life.

John 6:35-40 NAS:
35 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. 36 "But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe. 37 "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. 38 "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 "This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. 40 "For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day."

Next Jesus makes it clear that a person must know and love God before he or she will be willing to accept the message of Jesus.

John 6:44-45 NAS:
44 "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. 45 "It is written in the prophets, ‘and they shall all be taught of God.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me.

Everyone who comes to Jesus and believes what He teaches will be saved.

John 6:47-51,54 NAS:
47 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. 48 "I am the bread of life. 49 "Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 "This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 "I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; 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."

54 "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

Anyone who accepts Jesus message and internalizes it will be given salvation and eternal life.

Chapter 7

Jesus then goes to the Feast of Booths and reaffirms that He only does what He has been sent by God to do and that alone should prove that He is the Messiah.

John 7:15-18 NAS:
15 The Jews then were astonished, saying, "How has this man become learned, having never been educated?" 16 So Jesus answered them and said, "My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. 17 "If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself.
18 "He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

Then there is another reference to Jesus being the source of the gift of the Holy Spirit.

John 7:37-38 NAS:
37 Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. 38 "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.' "

Chapter 8

In this chapter Jesus forgives the adulterous woman and then makes another reference to His being the light of the world.

John 8:12 NAS:
12 Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life."

The Pharisees refused to believe Him even after all of this evidence to support His claims. Jesus simply told them the consequences for those who refuse to listen to Him.

John 8:24 NAS:
24 "Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins."

And then the promise that the truth will set them free.

John 8:31,32,46,47 NAS:
31 So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine;
32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."

46 "Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me?
47 "He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God."

Now let us pull all this together and we can see that it is something that is easily understood by everyone.

The verses we have just read make it very clear that Jesus came to mankind on the earth in order that He could be light to a world in darkness. Now He did not mean they did not have any lights on. He meant they were in spiritual darkness and in order to help them understand the importance of the message, He put it in terms comparing light to dark. What happens when you turn a light on in a dark room? Everything in the room is clearly seen. So for the sake of mankind it was necessary for Jesus to come to the earth and teach the people who were living in spiritual darkness that they actually were in darkness. You see they thought they were very intelligent and had ascended to a level of knowledge even beyond that of God. So over and over and over again, Jesus refers to Himself and is referred to by others as the “light of the world.”

This light comes from Heaven and Jesus therefore is the only person who knows God intimately because He has lived with Him in Heaven through all of eternity past. Who then would know God and His will better than Jesus? But God knew that sending such a messenger to earth would be a shock to the people and because of their sinful nature they would struggle with believing He was sent from God. So God made it abundantly clear through prophecy in the Old Testament, the witness of John the Baptist, Jesus’ demeanor and behavior, and miracles that Jesus was the Savior sent from Heaven by God. So thus far we have a special messenger sent by God to the people of the earth to reveal something brand new that is of the highest priority in people’s lives. Further, God makes it clear that Jesus is that messenger. There can be no doubt that anyone who knew God would know that they should listen to what Jesus had to say for their own good.

So this Man Jesus, who represents God, comes to earth as a human being to reflect God’s glory. He was to show people what God was like and deliver the message of salvation. Nothing that He ever did or said was for His own glory, but He always stressed that the message and the glory belong to God and He was only the messenger. Anyone who listened to Jesus’ message, therefore, would know it came directly from God. The message was basically very simple. You could accept it and have salvation and eternal life in Heaven, or you could reject it and spend eternity in Hell with no second chances. The message has not changed in the last 2000 years and, as a matter of fact, it will never change. We have the same choice today. I hope you clearly understand that, and if you do not, please talk to one of us ASAP.

Accepting this message means we are being reborn spiritually (not physically). Our spirit and Christ’s spirit are joined together and are inseparable. It would be like taking two glasses of water, one being Christ’s spirit and the other being yours, and pouring each into a new glass container. You and Christ are blended together as one.

Jesus also shows us that the message is for all people, both Jews and Gentiles, by the conversions that are made of many Samaritans. So no matter who you are or what nationality you belong to, you can be saved. Furthermore, we see that if anyone listens to the message and opens their heart to what it says, they will accept it. If they refuse to even listen to it, they will come up with all kinds of foolish excuses, which in effect show that they have no understanding of the God of the Old Testament and desire to continue living in darkness.

Finally, Jesus explains that God is a forgiving God and He will forgive whatever sins you have committed. There is nothing you have done in the past that will exclude you from eligibility to receive salvation. Therefore, this message of truth that Christ brings from God will set anyone free. The only thing you have to do is to reach out and accept it.

If you, like I, look back over your life and reflect on it and on what you are going to do with your remaining years, I trust you will give spiritual issues highest priority. Give your heart to Christ if you have not already done so. And if you are a Christian, purpose to make obedience to Christ and living the Christian life your highest priority. Then when it is time for you to depart this world, you will have no regrets. Remember the old saying, which we do not hear much any more, “Only one life, ‘twill soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.

 

 

 

 

Isaiah

John

Romans

1 Peter


© Ron Teed - Used by permission. All rights Reserved.