John 8:48-59

In today’s passage we will see the anger of the religious leaders reach a new high. Jesus had just told them that their father was NOT Abraham, but the devil! They were apoplectic! They begin the name-calling:

The Jews answered him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?”


“I am not possessed by a demon,” said Jesus, “but I honor my Father and you dishonor me. I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge. I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”


At this the Jews exclaimed, “Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that if anyone keeps your word, he will never taste death. Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?” (John 8:48-53)

Now this last question was surely rhetorical, but it is the key to the entire Bible: Who IS Jesus? Each of us must answer this question, because our salvation depends upon it. Jesus had been trying to reveal His identity to them, but they would not hear it. And it’s His answer to this question, and their response that is the focus of this passage:

“I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds. (vs. 58-59)

Why did Jesus’ answer evokes such a violent response? He was clearly referring to the passage in Exodus 3 in which God, appearing in the burning bush, tells Moses His name. Moses was being called by God to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, but the reluctant leader was trying to find a way out of this job:

Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” (Exodus 3:13-14)

This name that God gave Himself encapsulates His eternal, self-existent nature. So, the Jewish leaders confronting Jesus clearly understood that when He said, “Before Abraham was born, I am,” He was making a claim to deity. The evidence that they understood His meaning was that they picked up stones to stone him! They believed He deserved the death sentence for such blasphemy!

According to Jewish law, stoning was only legal for five types of offenders: mediums or spiritists who communicated with familiar spirits (Lev. 20:27); those who committed blasphemy (Lev. 24:10-23); false prophets who lead the people into idolatry (Deut 13:5-10); stubborn, rebellious sons (Deut 21:18-21); and adulterers and rapists (Deut 22:21-24 & Lev 20:10). It was clear that the Jewish leaders believed Jesus was blaspheming in equating Himself with God. They had to conclude He was either demon-possessed, or boldly lying. Otherwise, they would have to conclude He was actually telling the truth!

John is giving us the background here to what lead up to Jesus’ crucifixion. His outrageous claims (in the minds of the Jewish leaders) threatened their authority and their control of the people. The tension continued to build.

If Jesus truly is Who He says He is, then it will radically alter our lives. It demands a response from us. Will we believe or take up stones?

John 8:37-47

I’ll be reminding you throughout this study that the point of John is that it is crucial what we believe. It’s the theme of his gospel. This particular passage of John is a long one! The Jews are making the “religious” argument about their identity as Jews. They claim to be the children of Abraham, as surely they were his physical descendants. In fact, in verse 39 they declare with pride, “Abraham is our father.” This is the argument of all who claim they are right with God because they belong to their church affiliation. “I know I’m okay with God, because I’ve gone to the First Church on the Corner for 35 years!” “I am saved because I was baptized at the Holy Church of the Confessor.” “Surely God looks down on me favorably because I’m a deacon at the Righteous Church of Jesus Christ.” “My grandfather was the founding pastor at Community Church of the Truth.”

God has no grandchildren! We become His children when we receive Christ as our Savior (John 1:12). Jesus enters into a debate with these leaders to point out the futility of their reasoning:

“If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do the things Abraham did. As it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. You are doing the things your own father does.” (John 8:39b-41)

Check out Hebrews 11 to see how Abraham was declared righteous before God. It was because of his faith, not because of his rich religious heritage. The Jewish leaders weren’t hearing Jesus:

“We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.”


Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.” (vs. 41b-47)

Jesus equates the truth He is giving them with the words of His Father, and He argues that THEIR father is the father of lies, Satan. How can that be that religious men, zealously keeping all of these religious rules and practicing their rituals with precision could be children of the devil?? The Bible calls Satan an “angel of light.” He doesn’t come at us as the cartoon character with the red devil suit and the horns. He prefers subtlety - he engages us with an appearance that appears to be so good and so righteous. Note his classic temptations with Eve in the Garden in Genesis 3 or with Jesus in the desert in Matthew 4. But Paul warned us in Galatians, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!” (Gal 1:6)

Basically, Jesus is arguing that if we are not wholly committed to Him, we are on the side of the devil! There isn’t a middle ground. Have you fully committed yourself to Christ or to a church? Are you relying on your religious heritage or on your relationship to the Father through His Son? Tomorrow we’ll look at the passage in which Jesus makes His most outrageous claim - the one that really sets the leaders plotting!

 

John 8:31-36

To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”


They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”


Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:31-36)

“You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” This is one of the most frequently quoted and misquoted verses. People love to use it in relation to worldly knowledge. They twist the meaning to be that the more you learn, the better your education, the freer you will be from constraints.

Jesus’ audience also misunderstood, because they were thinking of political freedom. They did not consider themselves in need of freedom, because they were not in bondage to others. But Jesus makes it clear that the real bondage is bondage to sin. Sin makes slaves of every one of us.

It is amazing how quickly something can become habit-forming - to the point that it completely takes over our thoughts and time. And no one thinks they will become addicted to the sin! Whether it is smoking, or drinking, or using Facebook, engaging in an adulterous affair, or eating issues (whether overeating, anorexia, or bulemia), we all believe the lie, at first, that WE are in control.

But pretty soon you can’t wait for the next cigarette, or your thinking all day about going home and relaxing with that drink, or you are completely distracted at work, because you cannot get that person out of your mind. You spend every waking minute anxious to get another “fix.” That’s the way with sin! It looks good at first - and it feels good! Then it quietly begins to demand more attention from you, squeezing out the things that really matter. You think, “I’ll quit next week,” or “This will be the last time we sneak in a meeting with each other,” or “I can stop drinking any time I want.”

The irony of social networking is that it actually leads us AWAY from meaningful communication. How often have you seen people standing around in a group, all of them checking their cell phones for messages or texting like crazy, while being completely unaware of the others standing right next to them? Talk about addictive behavior!

The reality is, sin kills. It kills our will to do the right thing; it kills our relationships with family and co-workers; it kills our relationship with God. And it enslaves us!

Jesus is telling us here that if we will grab a hold of the truth about Who He is and what He has done, we will finally be free of the grip sin has on our lives. We will be free indeed! When we receive Christ in faith, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in us, giving us the power to break sin’s grip on our lives. This is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead - it can free us from our addictions! But you first must admit the truth about your sin - that’s part of “knowing” the truth. Then you can turn it all over to Christ, Who already died for that sin.

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. (1 John 1:8-9)
If we think we are not sinners, we are calling Jesus a liar. But if we own up to our sin, and confess it AS SIN, we are promised that, because GOD is faithful and always just (we aren’t), He WILL forgive us. Not only that, He will wipe out the sin and make us completely clean again! Wow!

What is it that has you in its grip? Confess it! He will set you free!
 

John 8:12-30

How thankful I am to be back in God’s Word this morning! In this long passage from John 8, Jesus has just dealt with the Pharisees seeking to trip Him up with the woman caught in adultery. These men, who were supposed to be leading their people to God, were in darkness themselves - the blind leading the blind. So in the next passage, Jesus turns from the Pharisees and speaks directly to the people again:

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)

Oh my goodness! There is darkness all around us - people unable to see where they are headed, wandering around completely lost. Jesus claims here to be the Light that will dispel all darkness; He is the Light that gives life. This statement confounds the Pharisees, who argued that Jesus’ testimony about Himself could not be valid, because the Law required the testimony of two witnesses (Deut 19:15). Throughout this long cross-examination by the Pharisees, Jesus calmly made claims that would be outrageous if not true:

Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going... I stand with the Father, who sent me. (vs.14,16)

In your own Law it is written that the testimony of two men is valid. I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father, who sent me... You do not know me or my Father,” Jesus replied. “If you knew me, you would know my Father also” (vs.17-18)

Once more Jesus said to them, “I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.” (vs. 21)

“I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins.” (vs. 24)

What remarkable statements! What did Jesus mean when He said, “you will indeed die in your sins?” If people have not received the gift of salvation from sin by receiving Christ as their Savior, they have no remedy before God for their sins. They are not cleansed of sin and forgiven except through the blood of Christ, the Lamb of God. And should they die in this state, they would be dying in their sin. The Bible tells us “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment...” (Hebrews 9:27 KJV) That’s the bad news! You have only one go around at this. Today is the day of salvation. What a scary thought that people die without Christ! It is that thought that should compel us to share our faith. We can’t know what state others die in for sure, but we can make sure of our own state before God! And the GOOD news is that when we DO believe in Christ, we immediately receive eternal life.

The Pharisees found Jesus’ claims incomprehensible.

So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am the one I claim to be and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.” Even as he spoke, many put their faith in him.  (vs.28-30)

So when Jesus was finally lifted up on the cross, when the earth shook, when the veil of the temple was torn in half from top to bottom (Matt 27:51), some would finally understand that Jesus is the I AM, the Son of God and God the Son. Some would come out of the darkness into the Light.

John 8:1-11

Isn’t it amazing how we love to point out the sins of others? We almost take delight in their failings. Witness the obsession the public has with figures like Lindsay Lohan or Charlie Sheen. We all love a train wreck when we’re not in it! This begins at a very early age! Having taught first grade years ago, I can tell you there is nothing children love more than to tattle on another! Why are we like this? I believe it’s because we want to take attention away from our own faults. If we can keep people distracted by the sins of others, maybe they won’t see ours! In today’s passage we witness men eager to pounce on a woman caught in adultery.

But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. (John 8:1-6a)

After preaching to the crowd at the temple the day before, Jesus sought some quiet time on the Mount of Olives. But he returned the next day to teach once again. The religious leaders show up dragging a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery with them, hoping to trap Jesus. They bring up the Law of Moses which required that BOTH the man and the woman caught in adultery must be put to death (Lev. 20:10). So where was the man? If she was caught in the act, he had to have been there, too!
They wanted Jesus to decide her fate, knowing that if He agreed she must be killed, all those He came to save, those He hung out with, the prostitutes, tax collectors, etc., would probably be afraid to be around Him. If He brushed it off, He would be denying the Law. Only Jesus could have been wise enough to silence them without a word:

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. (vs. 6b-9)

I love that John doesn’t tell us what it was that Jesus was writing on the ground. If, as most speculate, He was writing down in the dirt the many sins that those accusing the woman had committed, it reminds me that while He wants us to confess our sins and be cleansed, He doesn’t desire to make a public spectacle of us and have us wear scarlet letters on our chests announcing our sins. Whatever He wrote, it was enough to stop the hypocritical outrage of these religious leaders and send them home to contemplate their motives. And after they had left, one by one, the woman remained with Jesus.

Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”


“No one, sir,” she said.


“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” (vs. 10-11)

I love the quietness that is in this ending. You can imagine the noisy scene as they initially brought her out of that bed (most likely screaming), dragged her through the streets to the temple, and shouted accusations as they brought her before Jesus. Jesus brought calm and peace to the situation. He did not resort to yelling at them because of their obvious hypocrisy. He calmed everyone down by His own demeanor and was able to allow the woman some dignity. In fact, Jon Courson points out that when He called her woman in verse 10, it was the same term He used later for His mother when she was at the foot of the cross. Rather than condemning her, He exhorts her, “Go and sin no more.” (KJV)

Doesn’t this just make you adore our Savior even more? There is such a sweetness here! Jesus’ point here is just like the point He made in Matthew 7:3-5, where He reminds us that, before we try to point out the tiny speck in someone else’s eye, we need to first remove the log from our own! Our response to someone else’s fall should be one of compassion, one that compels us to pray for the redemption of that person. We have all been there - on a daily basis! How grateful I am for a Savior who died to silence the accusers in my life!