John 8:45-59 The Marks of a True Disciple - Part 3

28.06.09 John 8:45-59 (NASB)

Audio Sermon File: John-8:45-59

Going Deeper: Study Guide

THE MARKS OF A TRUE DISCIPLE - PART 3

Reality TV - imagine if they created another show that’s all we need right? The TV producer calls you up and wants you to be on one of the episodes. They start shooting tomorrow and they are going to follow you while you are at home, shopping, eating out, exercising, driving your car, playing sports, working, hanging out with your friends, etc. They are going to film you for a one week period - 24/7 - non stop. The name of the show is called X-treme Christian.

In order to make it to the finish line you must demonstrate through your attitudes and actions your faith. Just to make it hard they are pitting you against 3 other participants. Out of these other three - 2 of them call themselves Christians, and the 3^rd is not - in fact this contestant will be… you could say - ‘The devil’s advocate’ - their going to bring in a Pharisee as the 3^rd contestant. Contestant #3 sole purpose is harass you, slander you, lie to you, and even hurt you….in short his mission is to disqualify you from the show - sounds kinda familiar doesn’t it - that is what the unbelieving Jews were doing to Jesus. The question is are you going to make it to the end?

Today we will wrap up on the marks of a true disciple. The list of distinguishing factors we have at hand - are not exhaustive, but it is driven by our immediate text. But it does give us enough marks to put our self under the test.

In part one of our mini- series we looked at these marks: A True Disciple Perseveres In The Truth; A True Disciple Acknowledges Sin’ Bondage; A True Disciple Acts Upon God’s Word In Faith. Then in the next episode we discovered… A True Disciple Loves Jesus; A True Disciple Rejects Sin and Satan; A True Disciple Understands Satan’s Character.

By examining the marks of a true believer we can discover if we fall in line with what God sees, as His disciples. Continuing in our Bible passage today - Christ makes abundantly clear in those who oppose Him - what a true disciple cannot be. In order to bridge the context for today’s finale allow me to read to you once again v.44 - and then we will move into our focus text in vv.45 - to the end of chapter 8….

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.

Jn. 8:45-59: 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." 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.

In our sequel today we will find that…. A True Disciple Understands Christ’s Character - sinless; A True Disciple Belongs To God; A True Disciple Brings Glory To God; A True Disciple Accepts That Jesus is God

1. A True Disciple Understands Christ’s Character (sinless)

v.45 - All that Jesus revealed about the Jewish leaders and those who claimed to be disciples was the truth. This was a valid and objective assessment of many of these people’s outward proclamation. Today the theme of fatherhood continues into our section of this passage today. The familiar saying ‘like father, like son’ runs deep in a positive and negative sense. Jesus was expounding the truth that personal actions in our life - the things that we do - speaks volumes - and it reveals the spiritual father that we belong to.

It is not our ancestry but instead our actions which align us with God the Father ….or the father the devil. The burden of proof lay in the outward manifestations. Frankly, truth is hard to swallow and openly the Jew’s opposition towards Jesus demonstrated that they indeed have as their father - the devil and therefore do not believe in Jesus. The devil has many sons that are like him in the outwardly religious Jews. Doesn’t another saying state that - imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?

v.46 - With complete confidence Jesus opens Himself for examination - and challenges the crowd with these words - Which one of you convicts Me of sin? With certainty Jesus knows that no one could bring any legitimate charge against Him, or prove with any solid evidence that Jesus had sinned. The attacks on Christ continue, but Jesus is victorious against the opposition. None of them could sustain any arguments against what Jesus just had stated that these religious leaders belong to Satan.

None of them could substantiate any argument that Jesus did not hold to the truth - that He was a liar and therefore guilty of sin. This was a rhetorical question, and if you notice, the question went unanswered, since no one could bring any charge against Jesus. The issue at hand was Jesus’ credibility as being a truthful teacher. There was nothing deceptive about Jesus’ ministry ever. In the greater context of Jesus’ life, Jesus was also not guilty of sin - nobody that day could say to Jesus that He has cheated them, looked for selfish gain because of His special power, that He said anything bad, He never lied, or stole anything from anyone….no one who was ever in contact with Jesus from the moment He was born to the moment of death could have anything to condemn Jesus. This is important to understand for a true disciple knows and accepts that Jesus is sinless. The sinless character of Christ is to be accepted and believed if one is a true disciple.

If it were possible to convict Jesus of sin, then the testimony of His life and all that He claimed to be and do would be a scam. The bottom line is that Jesus would be a fraud - His death would have no impact before God and for people - He would not be able to redeem sinners from our sins - and we all would be doomed to eternal death. Hebrews 4:15 is clear on the issue of Jesus’ sinlessness - For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin.

Jesus then raises another question - If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? In other words Jesus is saying - If you can’t convict Me of sin, of any falsehood in what I say and teach, then what is the problem here? Why don’t you accept the truth, Why do you attack Me for revealing the truth? In so doing Jesus once again unmasks that these people are sons of the devil.

There are a lot of people in our world who accept Jesus as a good person, a wise person, a moral person, a prophet - yet they reject the sinlessness of Christ. The whole point of the Gospel of John is to demonstrate to the reader that Jesus is God the Son, He is our perfect Saviour from our sins. To understand that Christ’s character is sinless perfection is crucial as a true disciple, because it sets Christ above any mere man… it leads us to righteous living and to eternal life in a holy and righteous Christ, and because we have a perfect example to follow who can shape us to be like Him.

2. A True Disciple Belongs To God

v.47 - Since the Jews continued in their wickedness and rejection of Christ and His Word, He comes out and makes it clear the answer to His question of belief in Him. The reason why they don’t hear God through what Jesus says, is the conclusion that they are not of God. In fact they are fighting against Him. It is a demonstration of and symptomatic of their unregenerate hearts. Despite their polished outward actions inside was a wasteland of fleshly appetites.

This is a little story about something that happened to a pastor once upon a time. The pastor took his minivan in for an oil change at the Chrysler dealer. He was sitting in the waiting room, which was empty except for the pastor and one other man. The pastor was a little bored, so he struck up a conversation. And after a while, the topic of Canada Day came up.

The man thought it was a shame that instead of celebrating each Prime Minister’s birthday, we instead have one generic holiday for Canada’s birthday. The man went on to say that he considered John A MacDonald to be a great man, one of the greatest men in Canadian history; perhaps even the greatest man in history, period. In fact, he even said that he tried to live his life according to the teachings and example of Sir John A.

Well, now, this piqued the pastor’s curiosity. I’d heard of Confucians, Muslims, JW’s, and Buddhists. But the pastor never met a "MacDon-aldian" a disciple of John A. MacDonald? The pastor didn’t even know there was such a thing…maybe they forgot to teach him about this in seminary…after all he went to a seminary in the US. So the pastor inquired a little further:

Are there others like you? The pastor enthusiastically replied - "Oh yes, there’s a group of about 40 here on the West Side; we meet once a week on Friday evening (that’s the day we believe John A came up with the idea for confederation). Our leader is a man with a Master’s degree in Canadian History. Every week, he reads a selection from John A MacDonald’s parliament speeches, and then he gives a talk explaining what it means, and suggesting ways we can apply it to our lives.

And of course, Canada Day, is a big holiday for us. We have parties, and exchange gifts, and sing Confederation tunes like O MacDonald. Sometimes, one of us dresses up like John A himself , and he gives out presents to the kids. It’s a lot of fun.

That’s fascinating! So you must study MacDonald’s life? …said the pastor. The man replied "Well, not exactly. I do own a leather bound copy of The constitution - I keep it in a canvas protector which zips up – and I have all my Friday bulletins stuffed in the back - I must have at least a couple of hundred bulletins….even though I never refer to them….they’re too valuable to throw away. It’s beautiful. I have it displayed on a table by our front door, so when anyone comes in the house, they can see that I’m a follower of John A MacDonald. I also own several biographies of MacDonald. One of these days I really do plan to read them. I just haven’t had the time yet."

The pastor said - but how can you be a disciple of MacDonald if you don’t read what he wrote or refer to what was taught to you?

"Well, it’s mostly common-sense stuff, really. ’Do unto others,’ the golden rule, be nice to people, have a united upper and lower Canada, that kind of thing….. And besides, I listen to a deep 40 minute exposition on MacDonald every Friday.

I see, said the pastor. So how does being a follower of MacDonald affects your life? "Well, like I said, I go to a meeting every Friday. I celebrate MacDonald’s birthday once a year. I own a leather-bound edition of the constitution. Oh, and most of my friends are also MacDonaldians."

So when you get together with your friends, the pastor enquired…you talk about MacDonald’s life and how to live out his teachings?

The man replied… "Oh, no. That stuff’s for Fridays, when we go to the meetings. No, we just talk about sports, who just resigned at work, our families, and that kinda stuff. The same things everybody else talks about."

Of course, this is a fictional story (with Canada Day coming this week) and that pastor with the mini van isn’t me, ….but this story is meant to illustrate how ridiculous it is to claim to belong to God….to be a true disciple of Christ, but have no real knowledge about him or to apply his teachings. The marks of a true disciple are clear. We unlike the man must go beyond the superficial and live life in line with the marks of a true disciple, moment by moment….disciples are made - not born.

If a person does belong to God, then it would be evident that God’s Word would be demonstrated through their actions. There would be a love for His Word, an enjoyment of God’s presence, and a embracing of righteousness, there would be personal humility and dependence upon God, love for others, the continuing and consistent desire to worship God…just to name a few.

Do you think the Jews appreciated the open and honest comments that Jesus made? Of course not. How many of you have been in a debate or argument? None of you of course right? Especially those of you who are married? Perhaps by experience you would have noticed that like many people, those who are cornered by the truth - do what? They get irrational. Just look at politics for example.

It is evident that when Harper and Layton agree on an issue - they focus their debate against Ignatieff. And vice versa depending on the alliance - it is irrational. There are times in parliament that in the debates the leaders of the parties attempt to talk over the other two to cover-up something - and it ends up that all three of them will be talking at the same time. In a different realm isn’t this how fist fights and scuffles take place….usually a person in the wrong, would resort to violence to silence truth. And in the following verses of our passage this is what we will see start to take place.

3. A True Disciple Brings Glory To God

v.48 - The Jews in all their unrighteousness - led by their father Satan - get verbally offensive. They ‘pull names out of their phylacteries’ and call Jesus a Samaritan - this was one of the meanest things that a person could be called. If you remember back to chapter 4, people were surprised that Jesus would intentionally go through Samaria. This was nearly unprecedented because the Jews viewed the Samaritans as being unclean, half-breed, apostates. There was intense hatred among the Jews and Samaritans, so it was the norm to avoid contact with each other. And here in chapter 8 the Jews use the worse insulting name to label Jesus and slander Him.

It doesn’t stop here, but even greater was the charge that Jesus had a demon. It is clear that since they had no solid ground to stand on, they begin a verbal fist fight resorting to a violent outpouring of words in an attempt to silence the truth. Can you believe it they actually accused Jesus of being demon-possessed. This was blasphemy against the Holy Spirit - by attributing the work of God to Satan. They just handed down their own execution orders.

v.49 - Jesus comes back at them in a composed way, and declares - I do not have a demon. The name calling leveled at Jesus was a dishonor to say the least, but Jesus defends His Word which was spoken and seeks - like always - to bring honour to God the Father. In an indirect way Jesus is saying to His accusers that if they insult Him they are insulting the Father.

v.50 - The unbelieving Jews were not seeking the Father’s or Jesus’ glory, evidenced by their dishonor towards Jesus. Jesus does not seek [His own] glory for Himself, but instead God’s desire is to bring glory to Himself through Christ. These unbelieving Jews will come under the condemnation of the One who seeks and judges their disregard of Christ - for the end result was contempt towards God.

A true disciple sincerely desires to seek to bring glory to God. There will be times where we will be attacked for upholding God’s glory and honour - like Jesus did - for living out an authentic Christian life, but our strength lies in the knowledge that, we have the One who seeks and judges - the One who will rightly act against any injustice.

It is for our encouragement this principle holds true - a verse from the OT in 1 Samuel 2:30 states - Those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be disdained.

v.51 - Jesus knowing that there before Him, were some people who were not hard hearted towards God, in fact back to verse 30 there were some who put their faith in Him - so Jesus speaks again. Once again with the ‘Amen, Amen’ statement translated as - Truly, truly, I say to you - once again something important to understand….something true… Jesus says - if anyone keeps My word he will never see death. This is a threatening reality for those who know that they don’t keep God’s Word. And where there is no reception of God’s Word, there also will be present no submission and obedience to it also. But for those who believe it is comfort for their ears to hear. This teaching is like treasure to the one who is drawn by God to Christ. Jesus says that the one who is a true disciple and humbly follows Jesus’ loving commands will never see death.

The word never, in Greek is a double negative, which expresses the utter impossibility of death - in other words those who love Christ are guaranteed eternal life. There will be a future day when the warm embrace of fellowship with Christ and God shall be personal and forever. This is what the great reformer John Calvin wrote: ‘When faith brings life to a man’s soul, the sting of death is already lessened and its poison removed, so that it cannot inflict a fatal wound.’

v.52 - What is treasure to the believer is vile to the unbeliever. In response the Jews turn their earlier slander towards Christ, and attempt to make it a fact - they cry out against Jesus - Now we know that You have a demon. They spoke as if they were certain of this. Those who were under condemnation and judgement, by God, are ironically trying to turn the tables on the Holy One of God. They don’t stop with this…they continue and try to prove their meaningless point….hey… Abraham and the prophets they all died….isn’t this proof enough? The Jews are not misquoting Jesus when they use the term will never taste of death, whereas Jesus used - will never see death (cf. v. 51) - they are parallel expressions related to the personal life reality of dying.

Death can be viewed as both physical and spiritual. If a person dies physically it does not necessitate the reality that he or she will also die spiritually. For the person who keeps Jesus’ word will live eternally - they will not see death because they are born again. 1 Peter 1:18-25 speaks about this clearly - 18 knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, 19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, [the blood] of Christ. 20 For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you 21 who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. 22 Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, 23 for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, [that is], through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For, "All flesh is like grass, And all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, And the flower falls off, 25 But the word of the Lord endures forever." And this is the word which was preached to you.

v.53 - Not seeing that Jesus is using the word death in a different sense than they were - that is these Jews looked at it from an earthly point of view - they further press the question on Jesus. Now it is in terms of greatness - their hero Abraham is compared with Christ. They ask a rhetorical question - Surely You are not greater than our father Abraham, who died? The answer they expected was a NO (we know this from the Greek construction), so out of this they imply that there is no way that Jesus is greater than their spiritual ancestor Abraham. Like we said - The prophets died too …. SO …. whom do You make Yourself out [to be]? What these Jews are doing is once again obscuring the glory of Christ. They don’t want Jesus to shine. They want to hang some of their favourite spiritual giants over Jesus head so that they can belittle Him. In fact they wrongly think that Jesus is suspect of blasphemy…making Himself to be great. They want to diminish the deeds of Jesus and make Him out to be a nobody.

We see this kind of thing happening today, that people elevate themselves and others above Christ. In an institution such as the Roman Catholic church the people elevate saints, martyrs, apostles to the level of Christ. They pray to these dead saints in order to provoke miracles and personal favours. This practice is unBiblical, unsupported by God’s Word. In addition they call their spiritual leaders ‘Father’ Steven, and Father so-and-so - when in fact God’s Word states explicitly in Matthew 23:9 this - And do not call anyone on earth ` father,' for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.

When we have a high view of man we force God out from His glory and rightful place to a lower level, a wrong place. The higher the view of man that we have - the lower the view of God and Christ we have.

When we fear man more than God there is a problem. May we strive to grow in this area so that Christ alone may be exalted, and that we do not rob God of any glory. A true disciple brings glory to God.

v.54 - Jesus never set out in His ministry to bring glory to Himself. In fact as He responds to the slanderous remarks that any glory that He brings to Himself - that glory is nothing. We could arguably say that Jesus brought glory to Himself, but in the truest sense, it is God the Father, who glorifies Jesus. It is under His authority and according to His will. Jesus brings glory to His Father… this is a Father that these belligerent Jews, as Jesus says they claim - ‘He is our God.’ But they have no real connection with God the Father. God will not let anyone get away unpunished. They who have the nerve to slam Christ - they who have no reverence and honour for Christ - they who claim to belong to the Father yet deny His Word - they are to put it plainly - liars. So brothers and sisters….let us glorify in Christ alone.

Are you ready to stand for the truth and bring glory to Christ….in your sphere of influence - at work are you willing to put your job on the line if there are illegal activities - are you willing to be labeled a corporate whistle blower in order to bring glory to Christ? What about in this church… are you ready to stand up to bring glory to Christ on Biblical practices even if the whole congregation is against you - even if the whole world is against you? From my experience with church leadership - it saddens my heart to see when there arises a difficult issue in a church, that so called spiritual leaders, are so eager to vote in a resolution which is not interested in the truth, labels it as a blessing in disguise, it seeks no action, no justice, goes with the flow, and therefore does not glorify Christ. We are called to live lives which are geared towards Christ’s glory…let the Jesus we profess shine forth in us today and right into the week.

4. A True Disciple Accepts That Jesus is God

v.55 - Has anyone ever called you a liar before? Whether you were telling the truth, and I hope you were, or maybe you were lying - it stings doesn’t it? Jesus is going to push things to the next level of reality. He can do so because Jesus’ claims are based upon one thing, His relationship with His Father. As God the Son, Jesus does know God the Father, and intimately so. But if Jesus said that He do not know God, then He would be a liar. It is by the sinless nature of Christ that He should speak the truth. To do otherwise is impossible therefore Jesus reveals God to others and to these hostile Jews.

Jesus doesn’t hold back anything and in fact he directly calls them liars, because they claim to know God but are clueless about Him. They claim to keep His Word, but they do not. In fact they are liars like their father the devil - the father of lies. You can probably imagine the tenseness of the situation and the picture the faces of these Jews as their anger builds.

v.56 - Jesus continues and grants the Jews their earthly lineage with Abraham. If you remember Jesus back in verse 39 Jesus denied the Jews their joyful claim to Abraham as their father, for they did not in the spiritual sense possess faith and obedience. But here Jesus expresses that Abraham rejoiced to see My day - at seeing the time of the Messiah. What is Jesus saying? We could paraphrase it this way - Abraham so loved and zealously looked towards the day that Jesus Christ would be here with people….that even from such a distance, he counted this above any other desire - there was no greater treasure - no greater reward.

The point is that Abraham longed for the Messiah even when He was not present, so how sorrowful it is that now that Jesus is present, that these Jews angrily reject Him. Jesus states that Abraham rejoiced to see My day - in contrast to the reality that Jesus incarnate, is offered to these Jews, but they respond without rejoicing. They fail to see Jesus as the Light of the world - and therefore hammer the final nail into their own coffin. Tragic isn’t it? How tragic is it today that Jesus continues to make Himself known to people and yet there is no rejoicing, but continued rejection. What a blessing it is for us as Christians to have Christ and through faith be fully satisfied, rejoicing in Christ alone - honouring and relying upon Him for everything.

v.57 - Still in an earthly frame of mind the Jews once again are rejecting Christ’s teaching. They hold that what Jesus said about Abraham seeing Jesus’ day was impossible….after all Jesus was not even fifty years old. The Jews rounded up Jesus’ age, since in fact at this time Jesus was in his early thirties… so how could Jesus have seen Abraham who lived centuries before Him? What a ridiculous claim… the Jews were thinking. But was this a ludicrous claim? This exchange opens the door for Jesus to make one of Scriptures unequaled revelations about Himself.

v.58 - Once again we have the double Amen statement - Truly, truly, I say to you … and this time what Jesus says is monumental - before Abraham was born, I am ! Jesus lays hold of the truth that He is no mere human being. He speaks into the already tense situation the fact that He has a heavenly origin and even a claim of Deity. Abraham had a beginning for he was born, but Jesus had no such beginning - He is eternally pre-existent - Jesus has no beginning or end. Jesus doesn’t say that He used to be, or that He was, but he specifically used those two words I am. The verb am is quite interesting because the tense of the word in Greek speaks of a perpetual continuing state of being without reference to a beginning or end.

This brings us right back to chapter one of our Gospel - In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. Many of us would also call to mind the I AM statement of God with Moses in Exod. 3:14 - I AM WHO I AM.

v.59 - The Jews were no dummies - no more debate - enough is enough - for they immediately make the connection of what Jesus is saying - that He is co-equal, and co-eternal with God - that He is God and Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him. In Jesus’ day what Jesus said was a capital offense, the command of the law was death for blasphemy - making the claim to be God - yet for Jesus it was true. In this we see the willingness for murder yet an unwillingness to search for the truth.

Hard hearts, closed ears, blind eyes amount to the marks of a false disciple. By the sovereign will of God, Jesus’ time once again had not yet come, so Jesus was not killed. Quietly Jesus hid by boldly making His way through the crowd - and went out of the temple. A glorious moment of truth had escaped the Jews - and in a sense a sad scene takes place that we witness God the Son departing from His earthly dwelling place, the temple.

A true disciple accepts the fact that Jesus is God. There can be no other way around this issue in order to make the claim that we are true disciples. There must be a sound profession of belief in the God-Man - Jesus Christ. He came, lived a sinless life, was crucified, resurrected on the 3^rd day, and ascended into heaven - and He is to return again to gather His true disciples, and to judge all false disciples.

The true disciples life is not another reality TV show - it is reality itself and is faith lived out in an extremely Biblical way. The bottom line questions of your life are - Does your life match up to your profession? Are the marks of a true disciple evident in your life? Do you Persevere In The Truth, Acknowledges Sin’ Bondage, Acts Upon God’s Word In Faith, Love Jesus, Reject Sin and Satan, Understands Satan’s Character….

Do you Understand Christ’s Sinless Character, Belong To God, Bring Glory To God, Accept That Jesus is God? True belief and profession of Christ, true discipleship… results in visible spiritual fruit in your life.

John 8:42-44 The Marks Of A True Disciple - Part 2

21.06.09 John 8:42-44 (NASB)

Audio Sermon File: John 8:42-44

Going Deeper: n/a


The Marks Of A True Disciple - Part 2

The last time we were in chapter 8 of the Gospel of John we uncovered a gross miscomprehension of who Jesus is because of the Jews earthly ideas and darkened minds. Yet Jesus tackles things head on and ups the ante, and lays it all out in the open - no more allusions, no more implied statements, but the full force delivery the of truth prevails…and in so doing Jesus confronts the Jews and we can discern what some of the marks of a true disciple are by seeing what the marks of a false disciple are.

All this take place in the shadow of Jesus’ statement - ""I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life" (Jn. 8:12). And then as we move down to verse 30 we found this statement - As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him. So we discovered the transforming power of God’s Word - that as Jesus spoke the truth to the people, the Holy Spirit was working in their midst. Some of those in the crowd were saved from their sin, yet as we discovered that others who believed in Jesus, only possessed a shallow commitment of faith, which would be put under the gun of examination and questioning. Real or false faith, was going to be exposed.

Today Jesus is calling forth those who are true disciples. In real life, many profess to be a disciple of Christ, but inevitably there will always be some frauds. In last time’s sermon dealing with Jn. 8:31-41, we identified three marks of a true disciple, these being:

A True Disciple Perseveres In The Truth,

A True Disciple Acknowledges Sin’ Bondage, and

A True Disciple Acts Upon God’s Word In Faith

In past few years we have found ourselves as Canadians, constantly being threatened with another federal election. Any voting Canadian can cast one ballot - either you are Liberal, Conservative, NDP, or any of the other fringe parties. That is the world of politics, but in the spiritual realm, there are only 2 camps that you can either be in - there is no middle ground - either your are with God or against God - if you are against God then you belong to the father of lies - Satan - either your in or your out.

John 8:42-44 - 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.

Today we will continue to discover that discipleship is not simply a mere profession, but it is a profession of faith in Jesus, which is demonstrated by a changed life focused upon bringing glory to Christ. This changed life shows itself through THE MARKS OF A TRUE DISCIPLE, and in today’s passage we can see further marks of a true disciple:

A True Disciple Loves Jesus

A True Disciple Rejects Sin and Satan

A True Disciple Understands Satan’s Character

1. A True Disciple Loves Jesus

Jesus slices it right to the bone and calls our attention to the fact that our attitudes and actions reveal if we belong to the Father of truth, God - or - the father of lies, Satan. You can say all you want about being a disciple, like the Jews….but if all it amounts to are empty words - lip service - then watch out !

v.42 - Behind the mask of religion, the Jews lay claim to having God as their only Father. The Jews if you remember back in verse 41 protested against what Jesus was saying about them - and they blast back by saying - we are not illegitimate children - yet Jesus knows better. Jesus knows that these Jewish rulers are not the true disciples that they make themselves out to be. Jesus knows this because If God were [their] Father [they] would love [Jesus]. But they didn’t because the child of God will always acknowledge God’s Son Jesus - and they didn’t - and therefore were not true disciples. These Jews didn’t have any fear of God, but used Him as a smoke screen for their illicit activities.

Jesus once again states that He came from God, and is here incarnate on this earth. Jesus came to earth not for Himself, but for the purpose that God sent Him for. Being sent by God also implies that all that Christ is, and eternally will be, is consistent with God’s holy character and will. Nothing in Christ will be in conflict with anything in God….nothing that Jesus Christ teaches will be of human or earthly origin. As we look at our first point - A True Disciple Loves Jesus…we find that…

1a) You can love Jesus by consistent righteous living

The proof that a person who claims to be a true disciple is whether he or she loves Jesus. If one doesn’t love Jesus then it doesn’t matter what they claim for themselves about God… the bottom line is that God is not their Father. A true disciple cannot lay claim to having a relationship with God if one rejects the image of God…that image being Jesus Christ. We know that Jesus is God because as we can read from Colossians it is clear from Colossians chapter 1 - 15 And He is the image of the invisible God….. 19 For it was the [Father's] good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, 20 and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross…

There must be a deep genuine continuing love for God, and for Christ. Do you love God, Christ? Do you love Christ’s nature? Do you seek God through prayer and the Word? Do you seek to know and worship God?

1 Corinthians 16:22 states - If anyone does not love the Lord, he is to be accursed.

The opposite of genuine love for Jesus is hate and resentment against Him. The person who rejects Jesus has no pleasure in knowing that God is sovereignly in control of you. Genuine love of Jesus is demonstrated by a life that is centered around making Jesus’ glory known to others - friends, neighbours, co-workers. Loving Jesus is not out of personal convenience to be happy, or to gain a life insurance policy…just in case - in fact following Jesus does have a price - sometimes the road is rough - people may reject you - and pushing the envelope…the ultimate price for loving Jesus is martyrdom.

Jesus never promises that our life here on earth is going to be a rose garden. Loving Jesus means that we put away self centeredness, we no longer seek personal gain and self-fulfillment. Genuine love for God in Christ, elevates God and Christ to their rightful place… and reduces our high view of self. Genuine love for God and Christ is a decisive mark of a true disciple. In addition…

1b) You can love Jesus by listening to Him

v.43 - The rejection of Jesus manifested itself in the willful opposition to the substance of Jesus’ teaching, and Jesus even gives them the result of such rebuff. Have you ever been in a conversation where the other person on the phone is talking non stop? I have… I can clearly think of times where I hardly even had the chance to say a few words, except for hello and goodbye. Isn’t it frustrating? The reason some people are like this is that they are self centered - the issue is pride - basically they don’t want to listen to you. OR maybe you have made this observation….Isn’t it true of us - that when we don’t like someone, or we don’t think what somebody has to say is important then we tune them out… whatever is said is dismissed… filtered…. Blocked. We do not understand… because we choose to make it that way - and we suddenly make ourselves unable to hear, we increasingly get impatient.

The sin of pride was present in the Jews. Remember this issue of pride because I am going to touch upon it later again. The Jews proclaimed their thoughts for rejecting Jesus - which was based upon human reason and logic - but Jesus rebukes his audience for their willful ignorance and their hatred of His teaching. In short the Jews were unwilling to hear therefore were acting out in disobedience.

In the true disciple’s life there must be a determined effort to listen to Christ, that is there must be a willing obedience to follow Christ (obedient living). Do you show strong desire to please Christ by willingly obeying Scriptural teachings? Do you accept correction or instruction from the Bible humbly and then respond Biblically? Do you love the faithful preaching of God’s Word? Do you apply Biblical commands, teaching, and principles to your life the best way you can?

Hebrews 5:9 states that Jesus - became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation.

Obedience to Christ and His Word is not an option it is commanded - and stems out of a genuine love for Jesus. A True Disciple Loves Jesus.

2. A True Disciple Rejects Sin and Satan

How many of you have heard of a man named Clerow Wilson? Clerow Wilson is better know as Flip Wilson - some of you who are under 40yrs of age may still not of heard this name. But ‘The Flip Wilson Show’ was one of the Seventies' most popular and successful variety series, lasting a solid four years. You may be thinking only 4 years, but this is amazing because ‘'The Flip Wilson Show’ was the last time a television variety show was successful in focusing solely on one performer. It featured no notable regular supporting players, just Flip Wilson front and center. One of the most memorable Flip Wilson comedic characters was a sassy woman named Geraldine. Through this character Flip popularized the saying ‘The devil made me do it.’ The saying has made it through the years even to this day in various media forms like cartoons, and television. The reason I bring this show up and the famous saying is that Jesus confronts the Jews with the hard hitting facts about the source of their spirituality. The Jews didn’t listen to Jesus, so He goes one step further to explain why they don’t hear what He is saying….

v.44 - and Jesus reveals who these Jew’s father is. What Jesus is going to say is stinging - he says this - You are of [your] father the devil. Jesus implied this earlier in this section of John, but now He unloads the unsavory truth of these religious leaders allegiance - that they belong not to God, but to Satan… they are children of the devil. By such revelation they are unmasked as the natural declared enemies of God and Christ, and therefore they want to do the desires of [their] father’s desire. Just as Satan and his fallen angels fight Christ, so do his children - back to that saying ‘like father like son.’

In fact in verse 44, the words want to do the desires - speaks of, in the Greek - a wish to keep on doing what Satan wants. In other words Jesus is saying to these false disciples - you belong to Satan, he is your spiritual leader - your actions and attitudes make it abundantly evident - you have no desire to follow God the Father - but instead you willingly love to continue in sin - and you callously have no plans to change that.

In contrast, the true disciple rejects Satan and hates sin. When we were unbelievers we loved sin, but Christ has changed us - it should go without saying that the more mature we are - the more that we will reject sin. We do this by applying what it says in 1 Peter 5, it states - Be of sober [spirit], be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 But resist him, firm in [your] faith…

And this begs the question of us - WHO DO YOU BELONG TO? WHICH FATHER DO YOU HAVE?

3. A True Disciple Understands Satan’s Character

Jesus goes on to further tell us about the character of Satan. And this is what Jesus says - "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.

3a) Understand that Satan is a person

There are many people today who are uneasy with the thought that there is a supernatural being called the devil, or Satan, or Lucifer - and even the concept of hell. Instead many including some Christians, would rather believe that this shadowy figure is just a personification of the existence of a force called evil. Many would rather have the little red figure that has horns, wielding a pitch fork, and sporting a spear ended tail, and discount the reality of the person who lays behind these cartoons.

Satan is a person - by person I don’t mean that he is a supernatural human being, but that being a person is that Satan is not an imaginary figure but is indeed a real being. So I want to spend the rest of our time looking at what the NT says about Satan in light of Jesus’ comments to the Jews. A true disciple will gain an understanding of Satan’s character so that he or she can Resist him, standing firm in the faith (1 Pet. 5:9a NIV).

A good place to start would be to weigh the evidence that Satan is a person, and not an imaginary character Satan is a person because he possesses intellect, emotions, and will. It is clearly demonstrated in the New Testament that Satan has intellectual ability. The Lord Jesus dealt with Satan as a real person when He was being tempted by Satan (Matt 4:1-11). Satan used his intellect by selecting a verse of Scripture (Ps 91:11-12) and then twisting it out of context, in a bid to tempt Christ to distrust and doubt God. Satan attempted to make Christ believe He needed to take control of His own destiny because God would not keep His Word.

Satan’s ability to think and plan out successful deceptions upon the people of the world during the Tribulation, as indicated in Revelation 12:9, demonstrates that he has intellect. Also in 2 Corinthians 2:11 the Apostle Paul stated that Satan would possibly try to take advantage of believers and to plot against others.

Satan also possesses emotions as he expresses his rage against Israel after being cast out of heaven in the end times. Satan’s condemnation by God was due to the emotion of pride as expressly implied in 1 Timothy 3:6.

True to personality is will, as expressed in 2 Timothy 2:26, that there were some who have been "taken captive by [Satan] to do his will." Such an example is Judas in John 13:2 which states that "the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, [the son] of Simon, to betray [Jesus] (Bellshaw, 24-25)." Satan’s will is also demonstrated in filling the hearts of Ananias and Sapphira, in Acts 5:1-11, with evil thoughts, lies, and covetousness.

3b). Understand the names of Satan

Another reason why Satan is a person is because he is given names. The most commonly used and well-known name of Satan is "the devil" and this name is only used of him in the New Testament. The Devil has at least eighteen names (descriptive titles and proper names) attributed to him in the New Testament. These names can best be understood when applied to a person for they outline character and deeds.

The second most frequently used name is "Satan" and occurs thirty-five times in the New Testament. The name "Satan" is the personal name of the head of the demons. It is a Hebrew word that is taken from the Old Testament and is translated as "adversary" (Grudem, 414). The name "adversary" in Greek has the legal sense of an opponent in a lawsuit, thus meaning an enemy (1 Pet 5:8). As an opponent he is described as being as "ferocious as a lion, continually walking about with the intent of devouring someone."

His other names include "accuser" for he brings accusations against believers before the throne of God (Rev 12:9-10). "Beelzebub" is found seven times in the New Testament which probably is connected to the sense that he is the lord of filth, which refers to idolatrous sacrifice (Luke 11:15). In 2 Corinthians 6:15 Satan is named "Belial" which means "worthlessness" as contrasted to Christ, the worthy One. The key name of Satan that is repeated in the book of Revelation is "dragon" giving the image of one who is of great size and frightening in appearance. Satan is known as the "enemy," for it characterizes his hatred for God and His spiritual children (Matt 13:39).

The age that we live in is evil and 2 Corinthians 4:4 places Satan as the "god of this world." Ephesians 2:2 attributes the title "the prince of the power of the air" to Satan for he rules the sphere that we live in through rebellious and ungodly mankind. John designates him in John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11, and other verses as the "ruler of this world." Together with his demons, Satan exercises his power over the nations using the things of this world to entrap man under his schemes.

Satan is also referred to as a serpent which brings into mind the garden of Eden and the origin of sin in us. The characteristics of Satan as a serpent conjure up that which is "mainly evil, emphasizing its treachery, its venom, its skulking, and its murderous proclivities (Bellshaw, 27)." He is the "tempter" for he continually tries and tests man in order to cause him to fail before God (1 Thess 3:5). Satan is given the name "the wicked one" for the emphasis of his character is active evil (Eph 6:16).

Satan is a murderer which literally means that he is a man-slayer (John 8:44a). The motive behind murder is his hatred of God and His people, and Satan is the person behind it.

With God’s creation of Adam and Eve, Satan was devising ways to destroy humanity - and he in a sense was successful, since he was able to cause the entrance and imputation of sin into the human race - therefore plunging all people towards eternal wrath - everlasting spiritual death apart from God forever.

But ultimately Satan’s success is limited, since God is infinitely more powerful and is fully sovereign - and He had planned to send Christ to redeem from eternal death, all those who would trust in Christ to remove the murderous sting of sin.

Satan is a murderer because he robs people from eternal life. He sets to take people’s eyes off God and onto things of this world and even onto himself in Satanic ritual and worship via his multitude of vehicles which include the occult, new age movement, humanism, naturalism, secularism, and false religion.

Lying is part of the nature of Satan. Jesus says that lying is his native language He is the father of lies which is used to describe him as the first and foremost liar (John 8:44b). In fact the very first recorded words of Satan are of deceit in Genesis 3:1. In contrast to Satan, God is the Father of truth, everything that comes forth from God is true and by implication everything that Jesus speaks is also the truth because He does the will of the Father and is God the Son.

For true disciples, Satan tries to tempt you to weaken your faith, he’s going to try hard to make you stumble, bring doubt into your minds so that you don’t trust God - and even try to make you resent God and his people. Satan tried this on Jesus - so how much more will he try it out on us?

3c). Understand where Evil came from

So where did evil come from? Satan has a beginning - the Bible speaks to his origins - that he was created as an angel, and specifically a Cherub (Ezek. 28:14). Satan remains an angel, but now is a fallen angel since he sinned against God (Is. 14:12-14) ….he is an angel of darkness. Satan was created good - that is he was not created evil - otherwise it would go to say that God created evil and that God created sin, and that God is evil, therefore God could not overcome evil for Himself or for us, so God did not create evil. We can understand that evil came from outside of God. In Adam and Eve they made a choice and it was a wrong choice, an evil choice - which plunged the world into turmoil, and caused all people to be sinners. When Adam and Eve disobeyed evil became a reality. "Sin is not an entity; it is not a force; it is not a being. It is the absence of moral perfection" (MacArthur)

We understand that the origin of evil came from the author of evil - the devil. At the moment that Satan rebelled against God he plunged himself and a third of the angels in heaven (Rev. 12:4) into the realm of earth.

Satan was created good because even in verse 44 - stated in reversed terms, that Satan was not holding to the truth. This means that at one time he was holding to the truth as an angel in an unfallen state.

Write this reference down - Ezekiel 28:12-19 - this gives us a clear synopsis of the history of Satan (another reference is Isaiah 14). We don’t have the time to go through this whole passage so I encourage you to read it on your own. But what I want to highlight is the answer to where did evil come from? Look at verse 15 of Ezek. 28…. You were blameless in your ways From the day you were created Until unrighteousness was found in you. The wickedness or sin was found where?….in you - within Satan.

Evil did not come externally. The created order was perfect so there was nothing to influence Satan to sin. God was and is righteous and perfect. God only reveals that unrighteousness was found in Satan. I think that even this revelation is too deep for us to fully grasp. So evil was somehow generated in the being of this holy angel.

Remember I asked you to take note of the pride that was found in the Jews? The sin that began Satan’s demise was also pride as we can see from verse 17. The up-swelling of pride in Satan manifested itself in rebellion as Satan tried to make himself to be God. As a result God turned Satan into the antithesis of God and cast him out of heaven. In a moment what was beautiful and holy, became ugly and wicked.

Yet now in his fallen state there is no truth in him (back to Jn. 8:44) - Jesus clearly expresses that the devil, willfully abandoned the truth and continues in this path of defection. The very fabric of his person is bent on falsehood. The only time that he speaks truth is when it is mixed with lies so that the lies might appear to be true - this is how he operated in the tempting Eve to sin - this is how con artist today operate.

Satan’s desire is that all people be deceived - and that the light of the world - Jesus Christ may not be seen. His foremost weapon of mass murder is falsehood. If we accept the lie of Satan that Jesus is NOT the only way, the truth, and the life - as Jesus declares (Jn. 14:6) - then the destination of our soul is doomed - no one can go to God the Father.

3d). Understand that we are not immune to Satan’s character

How do we properly and Biblically engage in spiritual warfare? Angels and therefore fallen angels have incredible power. God’s holy angels, under God’s command exercise their powers to do God’s will. Fallen angels also use their powers to do Satan’s will and their own.

But they are not all knowing, all powerful, all present like God. But with the powers that they do possess they can, and do, para-normal things to people. So we find in today’s church many believers that have involved themselves in the spiritual warfare movement. They are being encouraged by the many books and Christian leaders who have proclaimed themselves to be experts in this field. (Frank Peretti, C. Peter Wagner, Neil T Anderson, missions agencies like YWAM ).

What are we talking about here?…deliverance ministries, rebuking Satan, strategic level spiritual warfare, binding Satan and demons, prayer walks - journeys -expeditions, destroying demonic strongholds, generational curses, claiming territory, pleading the blood of Jesus…. all these unfounded Scriptural practices. Do we truly understand what we are engaged in and whom we are up against? Perhaps we would rethink these warfare tactics if we knew who Satan is? If you engage in these practices I believe that you could be opening up yourself to demonization.

Our mandate is not to focus on Satan and defeat him if that were possible… but we are called to focus on Christ and on living a righteous life in Christ. It is possible that this pre-occupation with the Demonic is one of Satan’s tactics to take our eyes off our Lord and Saviour Jesus. True spiritual warfare is not to engage in the unBiblical warfare methods that are being promoted today, but instead we are to follow the clear teaching of the Word of God. This can be found in 1 Pet. 5:9; James 4:7.

In short it is to live our life as a true disciple by applying what Ephesians 6:11-18 teaches Christians….and that is to…..

11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual [forces] of wickedness in the heavenly [places]. 13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. 14 Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil [one]. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saint

The sum of the spiritual armor is righteous living, by living out God’s Word every moment. Satan effectively operates in the realm of wickedness not in the realm of righteousness. If there is unrighteousness in your life then Satan can move right in and use it to tempt you and cause you to stumble.

By understanding Satan, through his character as a person, we find that he is the father of those who reject Christ - the unbeliever. The partial list of Satan’s names and descriptions give us a good understanding of who he is - that he actively opposes God and His people. And he is a formidable enemy that the Christian faces. As demonstrated, he is a person who possesses intellect, emotions, and a will, and must not be seen as an impersonal force for evil. Though Satan is limited in his power by God, he still possesses a wide range of abilities whereby the Christian must have complete dependence on God to defeat Satan. We resist the devil through loving Jesus evidenced by daily righteous living, listening to Jesus through obedience to Biblical instruction. A true disciple Rejects Satan and Sin, understands Satan’s Character and makes an informed commitment to Christ.

Flip Wilson may have popularized the saying ‘The devil made me do it,’ but we cannot make that claim. Satan cannot make you sin. We sin because we choose to sin - and this stems from the falleness of man. But in the face of sin the true disciple has Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the one true Father God, and we can have victory over sin and the ways of Satan and we can stand firm in truth, and say instead ‘Christ saved me from it.’

Thankfully we know Satan’s end - that he will be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone. There he will be tormented day and night along with his fallen angels and all those who reject Christ for eternity (Rev. 20:10)….and Jesus Christ wins…and He shall reign forever more, and we His saints shall spend an eternity with Him.

John 8:31-41 The Marks Of A True Disciple

07.06.09 John 8:31-41 (NASB)

Sermon Audio File: John 8:31-41

Going Deeper: Study Guide

The Marks Of A True Disciple

On CBS way back when, back in the 50’s and 60’s there was a show that aired on TV named ‘To Tell the Truth.’ Maybe some of you remember watching that show. Here is a description of the show from a web site:

"Contestants on To Tell the Truth were introduced in threes. All of them purported to be the same individual. Following the introduction, emcee Bud Collyer would read an affidavit describing the life, activities, and/or unique experiences of the person who all the contestants claimed to be. The panel of four celebrity guests then asked questions of the three contestants, trying to determine which one was telling the truth and which two were lying. Following the question session, each panelist had to vote for whom he thought was really the person described in the affidavit. Wrong guesses, by the panelists, were worth money to all three contestants, who split the winnings equally. The famous closing line for each round was: "Will the real ______ please stand up!"

As we left off on our last sermon in at chapter 8, ending in verse 30 we found this statement - Even as he spoke, many put their faith in him. So we discovered the transforming power of God’s Word - that as Jesus spoke the truth to the people, the Holy Spirit was working in their midst. Some of those in the crowd were saved from their sin, yet as we find out today that some of these people who believed in Jesus, only possessed a shallow commitment of faith, which would be put under the gun of examination and questioning.

Today Jesus in a sense is calling forth those who were true disciples….Will the real disciple please stand up. In real life many profess to be a disciple of Christ, but inevitably there will always be some frauds…there will always be those who tell the truth and there are those who are lying or sincerely in error. As we proceed into the closing verses of chapter 8 we find The Marks Of A True Disciple. In our section today we can identify at least three marks of a true disciple, these being:

A True Disciple Perseveres In The Truth (vv. 31-32)

A True Disciple Acknowledges Sin’ Bondage (vv. 33-36)

A True Disciple Acts Upon God’s Word In Faith (vv.37-41)

This is what our text tells us: 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."

1. A True Disciple Perseveres In The Truth (vv. 31-32)

We have had a much later spring in Vancouver this year, but one thing I still find quite amazing, is that spring actually begins in the winter, with the cherry blossoms. When we look at the plant world we realize that most of our vegetation around us grows and perseveres year after year. For example a tree never stays stagnant. From the moment it is hatched as from a seedling it grows….spring, summer, fall, and winter. Some of the tallest trees are found in BC. And when they mature they can be several hundred feet tall. One thing we can observe from even mature trees is that they continue to grow. Perhaps they don’t grow taller but they do produce more branches, and leaves. In a sense we can say that they persevere in growth until they are either chopped down, which is a real possibility in BC, or they just die.

This process of growth and perseverance applies to the true disciple. If there is no perseverance in the truth, in the disciple we have to really be suspect of their salvation. Jesus was suspect of the Jews for this reason.

v.31 - Jesus speaks to those Jews who had believed Him and gives them a warning. The warning encompasses what true discipleship is - that those who profess Christ must not just talk the talk but walk the walk. In other words Jesus’ disciples - that is - true Christians don’t merely just say that they are Christians without any accompanying demonstration of their profession. True Christians continue in Jesus’ word….they live it out, they persevere in the faith and make it to the finish line. I would venture to say that over one’s life time, whether a Christian or not - you have probably seen many professed Christians - just dash out of the starting gate - with great form, a burst of energy, optimism - but what happens?

Somewhere down the track they just colapse, or simply get off the course, run out of steam….and never complete it. This is where AT Robertson says ‘future loyalty will prove the reality of present profession.’ The true test of discipleship will come on the journey of life, demonstrated by whether we can continue in the Word of God or not - proving if our claim to Christ is genuine or counterfeit.

v.32 - Those who persevere are the ones that Jesus says - will know the truth, and WHAT? ….the truth will make you free. Those who have a knowledge of the truth no matter how elementary because many of those present before Jesus had just put their faith in Him - they would certainly know the impact of the truth - and will be given over time a deepening understanding of it. You could perhaps say that these people didn’t even make into pre-school yet, but they were enrolled.

A person who hears the Gospel and responds to the saving message of Jesus Christ will inevitably need to progress deeper in the knowledge of Christ and His Word. The person who meets Jesus whether for the first time, or the thousandth time, must get to know Him better to have a deep and real relationship with Him. Well what can make this happen? It is not really what, but Who. All of this is made possible by the working of the Holy Spirit changing us from within - for the true disciple perseveres in the truth because a true disciple is indwelt with the resident teacher of truth - the Holy Spirit.

It is the Gospel that sets us free (Gospel - meaning Good News - that good news being that Jesus Christ came to save the sinner from sin). Before a person is saved we are in bondage to our sin nature and eternal death…living under the yoke of Satan. But it is through the Gospel where we find rest from sins sting and through faith in Christ are able to live in obedience to Christ and His righteous ways. We are no longer slaves of sin. We will grow in our freedom in Christ.

The mark of a true disciple is perseverance in the truth. This is what causes us to grow. It is great that we all start off well, but in order to run the race to continue on the tightrope of faith, sometimes it seems overwhelming. Yet we do not need to worry as a true disciple, whether we have enough resources for spiritual growth … because we do. We have the truth of God’s Word. God’s divine source of spiritual power has provided everything we need for life and godliness through Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 1:3). In fact spiritual growth and perseverance are commanded by God - 2 Peter closes off with this command - but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him [be] the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen (2 Pet. 3:18).

So the next time you are worn out and parched by the race, take a break - by refreshing and recharging your batteries with the spiritual thirst quencher - the Bible. The Holy Spirit works when we study the Word of God - and that is what is meant by being filled with the Spirit in Ephesians. When we are immersed in the Word of God the Holy Spirit helps our minds with unlearning what is unBiblical and displeasing to God, and then learning what is the truth. Persevering in the truth will help you to walk in fellowship with Christ. Things like our ignorance, superstitions, vocabulary, thoughts, actions - will all be changed as we let Jesus the Light of the world shine on us. This small seed of faith that has germinated, will through Christ, take full root, thrive, and persevere.

The second mark of a true disciple is that….

2. A True Disciple Acknowledges Sin’ Bondage (vv. 33-36)

If we were to do a survey today, by going over to Granville Street, and we asked 50 people if they thought that they lived in freedom - what do you think the response would be? I think that you would probably guess that there would be an overwhelming response that - yes we are free. Now if you were to ask these people if they thought that being a Christian was to live in freedom the responses would vary. I would think that most people who were not Christians would think that being a Christian was restricting. They would think that we Christians live in bondage.

In the unbelievers mind there are at least ten restrictions - the ten commandments - the thou shall nots of the Bible. In addition Christians should not smoke, get drunk, gamble, lie, cheat….and the list goes on. For the unbeliever it is all about personal rights and freedoms. The mindset is - you can’t do that to me…I can do that if I want…in the 60’s it was love, pot, peace and tolerance, in the 70’s it was I am woman, in the 80’s it Macho, Macho man, in the 90’s it was the me generation, in our day it is post modernism (emergent church) - we are all free to live together and have our own flavour of truth.

May I suggest to you, today… that this is not freedom. In fact God calls these people prisoners…slaves….slaves to sin…and their task master is Satan. They are in bondage to sin. They are indebted to God because of their sin that has amassed. These people are living in bondage to their debt of sin - awaiting to pay it off with their souls by being credited with eternal death, in the unyielding cesspool of hell forever. We see these same kinds of attitudes in the people of Jesus’ time.

v.33 - Once again we see the blind ignorance of the Jews that were before Jesus. They object to what Jesus implied when He said that they would be set free - for in their minds they have never yet been enslaved to anyone - after all they believed and claimed the rights of being the physical descendants of, the so called, holy people of the one true God. So they say to Jesus - we are Abraham’s descendants - implying that they had a corner on being the children of God, and all the blessing associated with this was their right - including the right of freedom.

Yes this may be true about the right to freedom in some sense, but they were also lying to Jesus. We know that over the course of the people’s history they had many times become enslaved by other foreign countries…the Egyptians and the Babylonians, just to name 2 ….even at this present time they were under the oppression of the Romans.

But when Jesus spoke about being set free, He spoke of freedom from a spiritual perspective. So we might ask who then are the spiritual descendants of Abraham? God’s view of who the real descendants of Abraham are is set out in Romans 9:6-8 it states ‘…For they are not all Israel who are [descended] from Israel; 7 nor are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants, but: "through Isaac your descendants will be named." 8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.

Freedom from their bondage to sins, would only come through His saving grace evidenced by being born again - born from above to be God’s children…. the children of promise. If this takes place then the people would indeed be the spiritual inheritors of the spiritual blessings of God’s promise to Abraham through faith in Christ alone. These Jews were so boastful in themselves that they remained in a state without the saving grace of Christ - they lacked the humility which would have given them the hammering realization that they need Jesus. They remained in the sinful bondage to their legalism, ritual, and man made traditions.

v.34 - We find in verse 34 one of those ‘Truly, truly, I say to you’ statements meaning that this is something that is important to know - this in light of the lack of truth that the Jews ascribed to. Jesus tells us - everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. It is important to translate the Greek word in the verse, for ‘commit’ here because, the tense of the word tells us that the pattern of sin that Jesus identifies is a continual and habitual - therefore they are enslaved to sin.

We don’t need to look too deep into our own life to understand that we continually sin. Those who are without Christ are the greatest slaves to sin. If we are found in Christ, and the truth that He makes known, then we have been forgiven our great debt of sins. Not only this, we also have in Christ’s death and resurrection the victory to overcome sin - and no longer are slaves to sin - the truth has set us free. Turn to Romans 8:1-4 which states this reality -

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. 3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God [did]: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and [as an offering] for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

We all, apart from Christ, are slaves to sin - in such a condition from birth we willingly abandon freedom, because our love for sin is greater than our love for righteousness - so we deliberately sin. What is sin? What is the character of sin?

Sin permeates our innermost being and is at the core of the human soul (Matt 15:19-20). The root cause of sin is man’s rebellion against God. Sin places man at the center of all activity and removes God from His rightful place as Creator and Lord - and this is what these Jews were doing - they placed them selves in the place of righteousness and place Christ off to the side along with the truth. Sin affects our intellect (2 Cor 4:4), conscience (1 Tim 4:2), will (Rom 1:28), and heart (Eph 4:18). Sin is not just failure and lack on our behalf, or even a deficiency of some sort, but it is the lack of true knowledge which would include the exchange of truth for falsehood (Rom 1:25). Sin would also consist of acts of omission and commission. The result of sin is that man is totally depraved (Eph 2:1-3).

Theologian Herbert Lockyer wrote this - Sin corrupts man and therefore in his soul he rejects God and His holiness, and diminishes the sinfulness of sin (Ps 14:1). "Sin ensnares the soul . . . blinds, deludes, deceives, defiles, then destroys. If unforsaken, sin results in irretrievable ruin."

v.35 - Jesus continues and uses an illustration - that of a slave and a son of a household. It goes without saying that the son of a family will enter into his inheritance, but a slave on the other hand - though he may have some temporary power to execute his task, he never will become a rightful heir to the estate. Jesus was saying to these Jews, that if they did not come to understand their own sinfulness, they fail to see sin as God does, they will continue to hide their own sin, and deny responsibility for their guilt…so as a result they cannot discover sin’s cure in the person who was addressing them - that is Jesus. Until man realizes that his sin is utterly loathsome, he will never know God, but only the terrifying consequences of eternal damnation in hell.

v.36 - Christ asserts the truth that these Jews and anyone else for that matter - if we don’t come to Christ the Son, who makes you free - for the perfect and permanent solution for sin - there is no one else that we can turn to. Only in Christ is their true freedom. There is a fairly well known saying about freedom - Freedom is not doing what you want, but freedom is doing what is right. For these Jews they chose not to respond to Christ and His certain, and realizable freedom from sin - they chose not to be free indeed.

The Jews that professed faith did not posses saving faith for they did not acknowledge the sinfulness of sin in their lives…and because of this did not acknowledge Jesus as the sole means of true saving grace.

Real disciples of Christ acknowledge sin. That is how we became Christians…in response to Christ’s saving grace we confessed that we are sinners before a Holy and righteous God. We let go of any thoughts of saving our self, any thoughts about being able to work at being forgiven, any thoughts about being able to please a sinless God, and instead we surrendered our self to Christ as the only Saviour who could save us from eternal damnation….we died to self to be set free and to be alive in Christ and therefore cannot be permanently held in bondage to sin again.

The true disciple not only acknowledges sin, but through out his or her life continues in acknowledging sin. In 1 John 1:9-10, we are told this - If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

When we acknowledge and confess sin we are forgiven and cleansed…set free from sins bondage. The only way we know that we are sinning is through the Word of God, the Bible.

The results of freedom compels the believer to one priority - worship of God….and gives us one crowning purpose - to lead others to Christ through the Gospel of truth. Finally….

3. A True Disciple Acts Upon God’s Word In Faith (vv.37-41)

v.37 - Only Jesus has the right to grant freedom through faith in Him and Jesus acknowledges the claim of the Jews to be Abraham’s descendants - yet only as a worthless claim. Jesus was really driving the point home that the Jews were hypocrites about their being Abraham’s descendants…since they were ready to kill Jesus, manifesting murder in their hearts. All their foolish boasting was really useless since they we not like Abraham - they did not care to hold to Jesus’ teaching…since as Jesus said - because My word has no place in you.

Once they realized that a true disciple of Jesus was to submit and obey God’s Word then they were turned off by the truth - the cost of discipleship was just too much. It was something that they were unwilling to yield to since they wanted to be independent and boast in themselves. Through their abundant love for sin they became haters of Jesus and of God’s truth, and therefore there was no spare seat for Jesus - sorry the bus is full.

v.38 - Jesus’ response is based on what He has seen with [His] Father - capital F as in God the Father - that Jesus is by the side of the Father and in perfect fellowship and accord with Him. This is in contrast to the ‘father’ (lower case f) that Jesus is telling them that they subscribe to one who is not the Father. Jesus uses these opposites to underscore their rejection of his teaching. Once again it goes back to the reality that a true disciple will follow Jesus’ teaching as the Word of God. In a deeper sense is that those who love God will embrace the Gospel but those who do not will oppose it. The Word of God will always be welcomed by God’s people.

Jesus is saying to them - why are you so upset that I tell you to follow what God the Father has entrusted to Him to reveal? …unless the root of the problem is that they don’t have the same Father.

v.39 - The Jews in their arrogance totally miss what Jesus is saying and they continue to extol their pedigree as Abraham’s children. But it was a very clear and accurate assessment by Christ that they were placing their heavenly confidence in man and not God. It was by works - through a genetic link to Abraham, which they believed gave the right to a claim of a heavenly connection. In our day and age we can see the same kind of thing taking place where people claim to be a Christian because they think we live in a Christian country, their parents are Christians, they regularly attend church…meaning only at Christmas and Easter, and at weddings and funerals - some think that they have done just enough good and not too much wrong to merit God’s attention.

These are very common beliefs which demonstrate the lack of genuine faith - man centered - misguided beliefs, that people actually believe. But they are in direct contradiction to the living Word of God.

In reality these people have a human perspective on the truth, which is mere hypocrisy since they have no means of acting upon the Word of God in faith - because they lack Christ. There is no knowledge of the truth and truth is ridiculed by the way that they live.

Back to the Jews, they insisted that they are spiritual pure breeds, with a godly bloodline, yet Christ outright rejects their life of lies since they should do the deeds of Abraham. If these Jews really had the same spiritual heritage of Abraham then it would go without saying that they should do the things which Abraham was known for. Abraham was a known to be ‘the friend of God’ (2 Chron. 20:7; Is. 41:8) and these religious Jews were enemies of God. Abraham was also cleansed from his sin because he believed in the Lord, through faith alone (Gen. 15:6), yet these Jews depended upon human connections and their empty works - the Lord was starring them in the eyes and they did not believe.

v.40 - So what does Jesus do? He strips away the pretense and reveals the truth that was from God, that these Jews were seeking to kill Jesus - and in so doing were definitely not doing what Abraham did. As always Jesus was not promoting His own glory but instead, the glory of God the Father.

v.41 - Once again Jesus states that the Jews - are doing the deeds of [their] father - and He does this without identifying who their father is at this point anyway- and what do the Jews do? …they protested against Jesus’ revelation - We were not born of fornication - in other words that they were not illegitimate children. The Jews response could be an underhanded blow to the gut - a stab in the back - that in their eyes - Jesus’ paternal origins related to His ‘so called’ virgin birth was in question.

And so they set themselves above the crowd, and even Jesus Himself, and lay claim that - we have one Father: God that they follow - another lie. Jesus is making it plain that the Jews exploits are a result of them being like their father - ‘like father, like son’ as the saying goes - and these Jews increasingly realize that Jesus is implying that their father is not Abraham nor is it God.

The unbeliever has no room for God’s Word because they are full of themselves - and to them God just wastes space. A true disciple of Christ Acts Upon God’s Word In Faith. All genuine disciples live their lives constantly trusting in their Saviour - and applying God’s Word moment by moment. It is a life long, on going commitment to obedience to Jesus Christ as one’s Master.

1 John 2:3-6 clearly spells out the criteria for discipleship - it states - By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; 5 but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: 6 the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.

This is what the Jews failed to do. 2 Corinthians 5:7, tells us this about a true disciple - ‘for we walk by faith, not by sight.’ This instructs and informs us that God’s will for His disciple is to evaluate life through the Word of God with eyes of faith, and not merely through our natural senses. A true believer is empowered to act upon God’s Word through divine means. This empowerment comes through the powerful indwelling presence of Jesus Christ in all believers.

In today’s passage, there is a gross miscomprehension of who Jesus is because of the Jews earthly ideas and darkened minds. Yet Jesus tackles things head on and ups the ante, and lays it all out in the open - no more allusions, no more implied statements, but the full force delivery the of truth prevails…and in so doing Jesus marks out true discipleship for us to understand.

Will the real disciple please stand up….

　

John 8:12-30 The Power of Living in the Light

31.05.09 John 8:12-30 (NASB)

Audio Sermon File: John 8:12-30

Going Deeper: Study Guide


The Power of Living in the Light

A number of years ago in one of the editions of the National Geographic, there was an article titled the Power of Light. This is what the introduction stated:

Light reveals the world to us. Body and soul crave it. Light sets our biological clocks. It triggers in our brains the sensations of color. Light feeds us, supplying the energy of plants to grow. It inspires us with special effects like rainbows and sunsets. Light gives us life changing tools - from incandescent light bulbs, to lasers, and fiber optics. Scientists don’t fully understand what light is or what it can do. They just know that it will illuminate our future

. Light has a tremendous impact on our life.

Light has a tremendous impact on our life. Today we are going to look at the topic of light. Not light as what was described in the National Geographic, but something which is more profound - the cause of light that being Jesus Christ the light of the world. We will consider THE POWER OF LIVING IN THE LIGHT through our continued study of the Gospel of John, chapter 8:12-30. As we look at this section we perhaps could divide this passage into three applications to consider this week:

1. Make sure you know who the Light is v.12-20

2. Make sure you understand what the consequences are v.21-27

3. Be Transformed by the Light v.28-30

Since the beginning of chapter 7 and now into chapter 8 we discovered that a direct and open hostility to Jesus and His ministry was growing. Jesus’ opponents hated Him and because of this Jesus could not move around as freely and openly as before, but despite this opposition - Jesus according to the Father’s will goes to Jerusalem. So in chapter 7, it was half way through the Feast of Tabernacles, that Jesus begins to teach in the temple. As a result there was a lot of grumbling about Jesus by the people different groups of people each had a distinct assessment of who Jesus was.

Some thought Jesus was the long awaited Prophet that Moses had written about, others thought that Jesus was the coming Christ. Alongside all this confusion was also the attempt by the chief priests and Pharisees to seize Jesus, as they dispatched the temple police, yet this proved unsuccessful since it was outside the will of God’s perfect timing.

Allow me to read to you today’s passage: 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." 13 So the Pharisees said to Him, "You are testifying about Yourself; Your testimony is not true." 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." 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'?" 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.

Today in chapter 8:12, the setting is the same as in chapter 7, but the Feast of Tabernacles was now over. Jesus continues to teach to those who stayed in the city. To set the stage for what Jesus states in our passage we need to understand the historical context of an event that takes place during the Feast of Tabernacles.

During the Feast of Tabernacles there were rites involving water drawing and lamp lighting, which the people observed. As I had explained before in chapter 7:37-38, the water rite symbolized the blessing of having water to satisfy the Israelites thirst in the wilderness. In this context Jesus therefore said - "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." Jesus was saying that He is the only source that satisfies spiritual thirst for all people and therefore fulfilled the symbolism of the water rite.

As Jesus makes His opening statement of our passage today, we are confronted with this application:

1. Make sure you know who the Light is v.12-20

v.12 - As Jesus again spoke to the people - He makes this statement - 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 impact of the statement would immediately draw the people’s minds to the lamp lighting rite they had experienced. On each evening of the Feast, there were four large golden candelabra which were lit in the court of the women. These were large candlesticks which were approximately 75 feet high, so the brilliant light they produced could be seen throughout the city.

During this time the Levites would play music and the people would dance and sing songs, and cry out praises. These four candelabra reminded the people of God’s Shekinah glory that had once graced the Temple (1 Kings 8:10-11). The priests would declare on behalf of the people their allegiance to God as their source of light, the One who would also send forth the Messiah to save His people. As Jesus stood teaching in the temple near the treasury, these now darkened candlesticks would have been clearly visible. Their lights were out, but Jesus offered them a light which would never be extinguished - Himself. Jesus declared that He is the Light of the world. When we examine what light does we all know that light dissipates darkness. Many of us have at one time or another been caught in a blackout. At that time it was likely that we lit a match to see, or even turned on a flashlight. When we did that the result was that everything around us in the room was illuminated.

Spiritually speaking, Jesus is the only light that enlightens us so that we can see Him for who He is. Jesus is the Light of the world and if we do not have a personal relationship with Him then we will walk in the darkness - and we have no means of salvation from the toll of sin that is ever present in us. Jesus is the Light of life. Jesus calls all of us to accept Him as the true light by following Him. There is a commitment that we are to make to Christ if we are to be His true disciples.

By nature and definition, light is invisible yet it has the ability to illuminate all things. To follow Jesus is to possess THE POWER OF LIVING IN THE LIGHT. It is a hard call that Christ calls us to….to make a radical shift in every aspect of our life - Jesus calls each of us to turn away from sin and to turn to Him in denial of our self, and to be in full submission to Him - it is also a call to live a life of obedience to Jesus as revealed in the Bible. Hard stuff isn’t it? Yet Jesus is sufficient for empowering us to live a life of godliness.

When this takes place THE POWER OF LIVING IN THE LIGHT will dispel the deeds of darkness - we will have entered into the process of sanctification, being set apart each day more for Christ. Each day the sins that have characterized us will be put away, as in Christ we are new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). Each day we will be shaped to be more like Christ in the beauty of His holiness. That is why if we are sure who the Light is and repsond to Christ, then we will have all that we need to bring glory to Him.

It is important to note that Jesus begins speaking by using the words I am. This is significant because it is a strong and clear allusion to His nature - that Jesus just as God had declared to Moses in the Old Testament that He was the great I AM - Jesus gives an answer to the Jewish authorities and the people’s questions of who Jesus is - back in chapter 7 - that Jesus is deity. The ‘I AM’ statements by Jesus will become absolutely and unmistakably clear, by the end of chapter 8. The words I am - confront us and say to us today that Jesus is no mere man, but that He is in very nature God (cf. Phil. 2:6)….therefore make sure you know who the Light is.

THE POWER OF LIVING IN THE LIGHT necessitates that we believe that Jesus is God, otherwise we have a false religion, no salvation from our sins, and no hope of eternal life with Christ.

v.13 - The Pharisees challenged Jesus on His statement. In a cloaked and slick way - they try to make Jesus out to be a liar. They come at Jesus from a technical aspect - that anyone who is to be a witness was to have supporting witnesses. What they are saying to Jesus is this - If you claim to be the light of the world, then where are your witnesses? …if you don’t have any one to back you up on this then your testimony is not true …. we are not going to accept what you say - it is not pertinent, it is unconvincing, groundless, - it is null and void - it is not true…but was it? Was what Jesus claimed really unfounded and therefore not true - a lie?

v.14 - This is how Jesus responds and He gives the first of three reasons why His testimony is true.

1. a) The first reason is by virtue of His Divine origin

- Jesus asserts His authority to make such statements which are fully valid - since He is absolutely clear on where He came from - speaking to His divine origin, and also His sure destination - His heavenly home - where He will be going. The Pharisees, despite outward religious piety, were living in spiritual darkness and therefore had no clue about the truth - in this condition truth could not penetrate their blackened and spiritually dead hearts. Just because the Pharisees rejected Jesus’ statements…it will never nullify the truth.

v.15 - Jesus continues and presses His point a little deeper. Jesus points out that the Pharisees judge according to the flesh - that is that they make their assumptions based on external perception - so they were not capable of bringing down a verdict because they used the wrong criteria. It was by the unregenerate mind that mislead them to their unfounded and erroneous conclusions. But Jesus doesn’t operate in this way - Jesus’ whole premise lay in what He said back in chapter 3 - 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. 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."

Jesus didn’t come to judge like the Pharisees, but Jesus came to save us - to be the light that imparted eternal life. THE POWER OF LIVING IN THE LIGHT gives us real living and meaningful purpose.

v.16 - Yet when Jesus does judge us, there will be no decision that is unjust - everything Jesus does is right and true. In fact when this takes place, Jesus will not be acting alone, but He and the Father who sent Him will act. Therefore Jesus, God the Son, acts in full harmony with God the Father.

1. b) This is the second reason why Jesus’ testimony is true - it is by virtue of His unity with the Father. This oneness is the guarantee that whatever judgement that Jesus declares will be valid. This relationship gives us the security that Jesus justifiably has the right to make the jusdgement that He does.

1. c) The third reason why Jesus’ testimony is true - is by virtue of identical witness proclaimed by Jesus and God.

v.17 - In the law, in the book of Deuteronomy, there was a requirement that there be two or three witnesses to establish the truth (Deut. 17:6; 19:15). When this took place then whatever was agreed upon by the testimony of these witnesses - it would be valid in a courtroom to establish justice.

v.18 - If by the Law, it allowed for and relied upon mere men as witnesses….then isn’t it infinitely more valuable and sound, that what Jesus testifies to be true come from Himself…and the second witness is God the Father? Jesus had made the claim to be the light of the world - and now He backs it up with two witnesses. Now if Jesus was lying about being the light then the testimony would fall apart because God the Father’s testimony would contradict His. But God was the One who sent Jesus, so it goes to demonstrate that Jesus is indeed the light of the world. There was no higher authority than Jesus and the Father’s testimony.

v.19 - In response the Pharisees want Jesus to call forth the second witness, and they say to Jesus - Where is Your Father? They don’t ask who is your father…for Jesus made that clear three times is chapter 7 - but with sarcasm they mock Jesus by asking Him to bring forth the invisible God. Does Jesus answer their question? NO. Instead He goes and points out their ignorance, that they have no clue to who either Jesus or God is.

If they had knew anything about Jesus then it would go without saying that they would know the Father also. As in the past and now here, the Pharisees are shut up. It was a well established fact that the Pharisees proudly made themselves out to be tight - in close touch with God ….but they didn’t know Christ, which would conclude that they had no substance to their boasts. If we remember back to John 1:18 - it is only through Christ that we can know anything at all about God. If you know Christ then you know God - it doesn’t always work the other way around.

v.20 - This whole confrontation between the Jews and Jesus takes place in the treasury, as He taught in the temple in the temple area near the place where the offerings were put. This once again is in the court of the women, a very public place - where 13 boxes for collecting offering were located. Despite the fury of the Pharisees, Jesus was not seized and taken away - once again we see the sovereign hand of God effecting His will - because His hour had not yet come.

We all are called by God today, to make sure we know who the Light is, and that is to believe that Jesus is God, Jesus is the sustainer and agent of life, and that His testimony is true - based upon His Divine origin, unity with the Father, and identical revelation with the Father. Next you are to…

2. Make sure you understand what the consequences are v.21-27

v.21 - At verse 21 Jesus once more addresses the Pharisees and the people. This time Jesus lays out the consequences of not knowing who the Light is. Jesus unmasks 4 ways that these people reaped the consequences of spiritual death...4 marks of apostasy.

2. a) The first mark of spiritual apostasy is Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. This is what Jesus says about unbelief about Himself - he tells everyone present that He is to go away. The words go away is the usual wording that the Gospel writer, John, expresses Jesus’ death. So when Jesus voluntarily dies on the cross, is resurrected from the dead, and ascends to heaven…when that takes place, the people will seek for Jesus but they are not going to be able to find Him. It will be too late because of the consequences of unbelief. When Jesus dies He is going back to the Father who sent Him and that place is in heaven. And because the Jews were so hardened to the truth, even though Jesus - God in human flesh appeared and spoke to them, they cannot come to the place that Jesus will be.

These so called religious leaders had committed the unpardonable sin - the fullest expression of depravity and ultimate hard heartedness - which is attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan - sheer irrevocable blasphemy (Matt. 12:22-32). These Pharisees personally witnessed the miracles of Christ, they knew in their heart that Jesus claims were true, but instead of attributing these things to God - they deliberately gave the credit to Satan and out rightly reject Christ - therefore they sinned against the Holy Spirit….this why Jesus says so plainly - you will die in your sin. THE POWER OF LIVING IN THE LIGHT was suffocated, because they did not desire to know and love Jesus the light of the world.

v.22 - Of course the Jews once again misunderstand what Jesus is saying…they have consistently been doing that through out our Gospel. Yes, they reckoned that Jesus was speaking about His death - because they ask Surely He will not kill Himself, will He. But in the Jews minds they sincerely must have believed that they were heading for heaven - yet Jesus had already just told them that they were not going to heaven. The Jews didn’t want to hear that so they re-interpreted (cf. Rom. 1:25) what Jesus was saying, to mean that he was going to kill Himself - that is to commit suicide. Suicide was an abomination to the Jews - and they believed that those who killed themselves would be transported to hell…. so hesitantly they surmised that Jesus was going to commit suicide.

They in their unbelief were trying hard to give another meaning to what Jesus clearly stated - they wanted to rationalize the truth - and that is why these Rabbis wanted to think that could not go down that path - there was no way that they would end up in hell. In their blind pride, and self righteousness they mistakenly thought they were headed for heaven…but they were wrong about what Jesus was clearly saying.

v.23 - So Jesus continues to establish the truth and sets out a contrast.

2. b) The second mark of spiritual apostasy is the love for earthly darkness.

Jesus says in verse 23 - You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. Let’s look at this verse together for a moment - Jesus says that You are from below - meaning that they are earthly; I am from above - that is Jesus has a heavenly origin . You are of this world - once again earthly; I am not of this world - once again heavenly. Because these religious Jews were so caught up in themselves and reject Christ, they belonged to the world. The consequence of having a hardened heart towards Jesus, the light of the world - bound them to live in, and submit to the dominion of Satan…they were living in earthly darkness.

v.24 - It is apparent that after all that Jesus said up to this point, the truth still did not get into the thick skulls of the Jews - so Jesus continues and makes a strong and emphatic statement and therefore unmasks 2. c) The third mark of spiritual apostasy which is unbelief in the true identity of Jesus. Jesus says in verse 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.". Once again Jesus uses those two words - I am - which once again are a clear allusion to His nature. What Jesus is declaring again is that if you do not come to believe in the Person of Christ - that He is God the Son - absolute Deity - God veiled in human flesh appearing to men - all that He is and has done to save us from our sins - then you have no hope - you are dead in your trespasses and sins (cf. Eph. 2:1).

The consequence of not believing in the true identity of Jesus Christ is that when you die all your sins will not be forgiven and you will be judged - and the greater implication of this verse is that one who is in this condition will be condemned to eternal darkness in hell. Hard to swallow isn’t it - the Jews certainly thought so, as they were burning inside as their hatred towards Christ intensified. But this is what Jesus wants us to clearly know.

Doesn’t this discourse sound perhaps like some of the conversations that you may have had with unbelievers? You speak the truth but the truth doesn’t seem to take hold of their heart. In the mean time other issues will arise out of the conversation - questions and statements which dance around the main issue - the saving message of Jesus Christ. Unbelievers would rather ponder upon the existence of angels, miracles, suffering, purpose, dinosaurs, the way that the earth was created, and more….and there is a place for these topics…but instead the person who is in love with earthly darkness - lives in unbelief, fails to seek the One who said - I am the light of the world. Like the unbelieving Jews, they do not want to hear the reality that their sin will condemn them to hell…and that they will not be able to enter into heaven where Jesus is.

v.25 - Jesus is clear in the truth that He speaks, yet the more He explains and restates things…the Jews became more exasperated…and after all that they had seen in the ministry and words of Jesus they ask Jesus a question. This question by the Jews reveals 2. d) The final mark of spiritual apostasy which is willful ignorance. They ask - Who are you? The bottom line is that at this point - Jesus does not give them the answer they wished to hear - which was a direct statement that He is God - which would launch the Jews in a charge of blasphemy. Yet Jesus allows His mission, works, and character to speak for themselves.

v.26 - There was a lot to speak and to judge of those who stood in unbelief before Jesus that day. There was no way, no matter what the people thought - that they would be able to evade the truth - to shrink back from the responsibility of applying what Jesus had said - judgement would await them in the future, because they rejected His claims and His person. But for now, Jesus didn’t get side tracked by the central issue at hand - the truth that God who is fully true, had given Jesus to proclaim to the world. The central issue at hand was what are they going to do with this Jesus guy, who dispensed hard truth….hard truths which had consequences related to one’s response to Him.

v.27 - John gives us an insight into the heart of these people, that they are in a sense brain dead. They do not understand - they were fixed upon earthly thoughts - a Messiah made in their own minds , though it was made so clear that Jesus was speaking to them about the Father .

The Power of Living In the Light as Christians calls us to do the same as Jesus did - that is not to be get side tracked by all the peripheral issues, but instead to proclaim the truth of the Gospel.

Jesus Christ is the sole object of true saving faith.

The consequence of not knowing Jesus is great. It is marked out by blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, a love for earthly darkness, unbelief in the true identity of Jesus, and willful ignorance. Not coming to Jesus with a repentant heart for the forgiveness of sins is eternally damning to your soul. Therefore you will never be able to experience THE POWER OF LIVING IN THE LIGHT in your life. So it is imperative that we make sure we know who the Light is, and that we also know what the consequences are of rejecting Jesus the light of the world…if we sincerely do that and confess our sin and need for Christ then we can….

3. Be Transformed by the Light v.28-30

v.28 - Jesus continues and now turns to something which will happen to Him as His ministry comes to a close. Jesus speaks of His death. It will take place that in Jesus’ last moments on earth that the sinful desires of the religious authorities will be played out - that is that they will carry out the murder which was welling up in their hearts. Jesus will die by crucifixion - that is what is meant in verse 28, where Jesus uses the phrase - lift up the Son of Man (cf. 3:14; 12:32). At this time and beyond, many will know that Jesus is God - incarnate - the One who came down into darkness in the person of the Son - the great I am - and that everything that He has stated is true because it was what the Father has taught. Jesus will be glorified in His death and therefore draw sinners to Himself as their Savior.

v.29 - Jesus is God sent, yet being sent Jesus is not alone but God is with Him. Jesus makes a point that whatever He does - it is always that which are pleasing the Father. Jesus found great joy in fulfilling the Father’s will as He actively worked in perfect sinless obedience to the Father, it would go against His essential character to be and to do otherwise. Jesus was devoted to do the Father’s will, which produced a life that was marked out by holiness.

v.30 - We end our passage by witnessing the transforming power of God’s Word - that as Jesus spoke the truth, many came to believe in Him. Some of those in the crowd were saved from their sin. It becomes apparent in the following verses that these people who believed in Jesus only possessed a shallow commitment of faith, which would be tested.

THE POWER OF LIVING IN THE LIGHT calls all who have no faith to respond to the loving command of God to repent of sin and to turn to Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. To respond in belief that the only way that we can be cleansed from our sin is that we believe in the death, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus’ death is the only means that satisfies the wrath of a Holy God - at the beginning of 1 Jn. 2:1-6, God tells us this…

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; 2 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for [those of] the whole world. 3 By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; 5 but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: 6 the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.

If the Lord draws you to profess Christ and to believe in what was spoken today, then you will Be Transformed By The Light. For us Christians whether young or mature in the faith - THE POWER OF LIVING IN THE LIGHT is a wake up call to us. Jesus said this - " "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. (Matt. 5:14-16).

We are to live our lives in the power of the light so that all men will know that we are saved by His grace. God has given us the Gospel of Christ… not for us to keep, but it is to be given away - offered to all. It is God’s gospel, not ours - so we must fulfill our identity as light , and share the Gospel.

There are some people who live their whole life rejecting God and they make it very plain and evident for all to see. Then there are some people who live their life well, but you would be hard pressed without asking - if all that they do and are as a person, whether it is powered by the light of Christ’s saving grace - with these kind of people - you could say that it is a 50/50 probability that they are Christians. For these kind of people, when they die, they leave the Christians who are still living with a burden upon their minds - asking…was he/she really a Christian?

It is an awful thing to go through life living in such a lukewarm way. Yet we really should take stock of our own lives and if we have really been transformed by the light - I encourage you to live your life in such an unmistakable way, that those around you do not have to guess or question your salvation….this is the kind of Christian Jesus wants you to be. Jesus wants all of us to live in the power of His light…Jesus is the Light of the world. Let us all unmistakably shine for Him.