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“Free Indeed!" • 9.15.19 • Calvary
Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service
Intro.
- Our Lord is standing in the
Temple, having been confronted by a mob of religious leaders, who had called
for the execution of a woman caught in the act of adultery.
- He has seen through the trap and
the religious leaders, left one by one, from the oldest to the youngest, but
some remained to continue their assualt upon Him. Let's begin in verse 13.
Text
• John 8:13 : "The Pharisees
therefore said to Him, 'You bear witness of Yourself; Your witness is not true.'" : Jesus has made a direct and
indisputable claim to deity. He is the Light of the Cosmos, the Shekinah, the
full glory of heaven.
- The Pharisees cannot bring themselves
to acknowledge anything that Jesus says of Himself! - They will quite literally do whatever it takes NOT to submit to
Him as Messiah, including their final solution, which was to kill Him!
- When a person refuses to believe
the truth about Jesus, they will be forced to extreme actions! Their first
attempt will be to derail His claim legally.
- They begin their argument by
declaring that He bore witness of Himself without any corroborative witnesses.
- For any statement to be
considered true, it would need to be attested to by at least two witnessess.
Jesus has given as many as four witnessess to His deity in John 5.
- The problem isn't with a lack of
testimony, but Jesus plays along with them. Verse 14.
• John 8:14 : "Jesus
answered and said to them, 'Even if I bear witness of Myself, My witness is true, for I
know where I came from and where I am going; but you do not know where I come from and where I am going." : Note those words: "Even
if." He is not granting their point.
- He is offering them the truth regarding
His person as an explanation to all that He has claimed. But, "even
if" it were the case, His testimony remains valid. Why?
- He had knowledge of Himself that
they could not possess. No earthly person could possibly add their testimony to
the reality of His eternal existence. They were bound by their natural senses.
- Jesus Christ's revealed life in
the flesh was natural, but His being is supernatural!
- Remember the equation: People will
go to heaven, but only one person has come down from heaven! Jesus alone knew
where He came from. He had seen where He had been.
- Unlike you and I, Jesus existed
before He was born in great honor and glory. Heaven is the Christian's
destination, but it is His Home!
- Even greater still, Jesus knew
where He was going. He knew where He was headed. He wasn't unaware of where His
path was leading. He could and would tell them of His future!
- Only God has that capacity! These
Pharisees had no idea what He was talking about! He continues in verse 15.
• John 8:15-18 : "You judge according to the
flesh; I judge no one. And yet if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me. It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is
true. I am One who bears witness of Myself, and the Father who sent Me bears witness of Me.'" : Jesus rightly accuses the Pharisees
of perpetually coming to final conclusions about Him based simply upon the
flesh, what they could see.
- This is what makes us
ill-equipped to be a person's final judge. We can only examine what we see and
that observation is trapped in a moment of time.
- The Pharisees believed that they
were the only ones that could see spiritually. It was their business to know
what came from God and what didn't.
- What their eyes told them about
Jesus didn't fit their predisposition. Their perceived great advantage and
knowledge had actually worked against them and caused them to reject Jesus!
- Jesus will stand as humanity's
judge ultimately, but that was not His role during His ministry on earth. If He
did set Himself to judge, He would not be hampered by their limitations.
- His conclusions would be true
because they would be in concert, in union with God the Father, the One who had
sent Him!
- The force of that phrase is that
Jesus would judge in the perfect way that the Father judges because the Father
was with Him!
- He is telling them that they
judged poorly, with only a part of the evidence and had no connection to God's
thinking on the matter!
- Additionally, their ability to
judge was based upon their flawed considerations of what they believed God
would be thinking about Jesus! "How could God approve of this Man?"
- Jesus testified of Himself and
the Father also bore witness of Christ! The Jewish leaders are not satisfied
and will move in on another front. Verse 19.
• John 8:19,20 : "Then they said to Him, 'Where is
Your Father?' Jesus answered, 'You know neither Me nor My Father. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also.' These words Jesus spoke in the
treasury, as He taught in the temple; and no one laid hands on Him, for His
hour had not yet come." : "You
say that your Father will witness to you. Bring Him out!" This was more
than a call for a witness. It was an attempt to humiliate the Lord with a
perceived scandal.
- According to a few commentators, there was a
rumor floating around that Jesus was conceived via an illicit affair between
Mary and a Roman soldier.
- The Talmud is an encycolpedia of Jewish oral
teachings and legends. In it, Jesus is mocked for various reasons and is called
the "Son of Pandera."
- This is a low blow that the enemy loves to
use. When logic fails, he will simply point out some past flaw to stop you in
your tracks. Jesus didn't even skip a beat!
- Jesus looks at them and declares that they
don't know who He was and could therefore, not possibly know the Father. To know
Christ is to know the Father and vice versa!
- They are distinct from each other, but are
one and the same! Jesus reveals to us what His family looks like! They share
the same features!
- If any other person said this anywhere in
Israel, it would be blasphemy! Jesus said this right next to the ruling
chambers of Israel! The Sanhedrin met in close proximity to the treasury!
- Jesus spoke these things in the very heart of
the Temple and nobody laid a hand on Him! The religious leaders, with all their
power and influence, couldn't touch Him!
- John is telling us this to remind us of the
contrast between this moment and the moment in time when Jesus will lay down
His life.
- The hour will come and this divine Son of God
will surrender His body to the authorities that sought to kill Him, but only
when His Father deemed the time to be right! Verse 21.
• John 8:21-24 : "Then Jesus said to them again, 'I am going away, and you will seek Me, and will die
in your sin. Where I go you cannot come.' So the Jews said, 'Will He kill
Himself, because He says, ‘Where
I go you cannot come’?'And He said to them, 'You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your
sins.'" : Their
inability to acknowledge the Lord's testimony to His person or His relationship
is the issue in life to resolve!
- That question : "Who is Jesus and who is
the Father?" has greater impact upon your life than any other question you
will ask!
- Jesus was physically standing in front of
them, but He was "going away." He was soon to die.
- His time had not yet come, but it was coming
and when He was resurrected, He would appear again only to those that acknowledged
His deity.
- When you hear these words that He speaks to
the Pharisees, don't consider them a threat. Consider them a plea to them
personally, as well as to you and I!
- Jesus does not need their endorsement, but
they need to believe upon Him if they will not be lost and the same is true for
anyone within the sound of my voice now!
- Jesus loses nothing when we fail to
acknowledge Him as Messiah God! But if we fail acknowledge Him, we lose
everything!
- These religious leaders will seek for their
Messiah, not knowing that it was Him! Even today, the secular Jewish person
seeks a Messiah of political, not spiritual power!
- Because they will not receive Him, they will
die in their sin! Listen to that finality. Consider that statement carefully.
"You will die in your sin." That is a singular sin.
- In truth, all sin is symptomatic of a root
sin. The one sin that dooms a person eternally is to fail to believe upon Jesus
Christ!
- To misidentify the Messiah, to die while in
the sin of unbelief, means that one will not have the ability to be where Jesus
is! These are crucial matters to consider!
- Have you put your trust in Jesus Christ? Have
you come to believe upon Him? When you have, it will issue in a holy life and
you can be assured that you will be where He is when you die!
- That is not universally the case! The Jews,
instead of asking about His previous statement, chose instead to analyze the
statement that continually baffled and shook them.
- "Where I go you cannot come." When
Jesus last made this statement to the religious establishment, they wondered if
Jesus was going to go to the dispersion, to the Jews living in Greece.
- Here, they even begin to openly wonder if
Jesus isn't going to commit suicide! The Jews at this time in history, taught
that committing suicide meant consignment to the lowest part of hell!
- The Lord says, "You guys are the ones
that come from beneath!" Their unbelief and their hatred of God revealed
that they were of that hellish realm! They were of that world!
- They think in the same terms that the world
opposed to Christ thinks. Jesus thinks in terms of the omnipotence of God!
That's why they will die in their sins!
- Their rational, earth born, world dominated
minds will never lead them to put their trust in Him! That is why they will die
in their sins! Verse 25.
• John 8:25-27 : "Then they said to Him, 'Who are
You?' And Jesus said to them, 'Just what I have been
saying to you from the beginning. I
have many things to say and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I heard from Him.' They did not understand that He
spoke to them of the Father." : They finally ask the right question, but it's with the wrong
motive. Sadly, these men didn't ask from a desire for information.
- They are not humbled. They peppered Jesus
with this question as a matter of harrassment! The grammar indicates that this
was a repeated demand!
- They kept asking Him the question that they
already thought they had the answer to! I'd even suggest that they are asking
in order for Jesus to confess who He truly was!
- They want to hear Him say, "I'm just a
man. I'm a nobody from nowhere! You have me!"
- They hope to intimidate Him enough for Him to
admit that He is just a carpenter's son from Nazareth, but that isn't what He
is!
- He looks right at them without so much as a
blink and tells them that He has nothing new to offer them! He confirms
everything that He had said without taking a micro step back!
- Let me affirm this as true: Jesus has nothing
more to offer you! He has left you a completed record, sufficient for you to
put reasonable trust in Him.
- He has declared Himself to be one with the
Father, the Bread of Life, the Light of the World! He has no new information
for anyone and that isn't the issue for anyone!
- The issue isn't information, it's submission!
Jesus is who He says He is whether you believe it or not! If you are waiting
for something else understand that there will be nothing new forthcoming!
- Jesus had many more things that He wanted to
say to them, especially as they pertained to judgment! They think He's the one on
trial, but it is they who are being examined by God Himself!
- They will stand before Him and answer to Him
in eternity! They will not only be responsible for having rejected Him
personally, but will also be responsible for leading others in the same way!
- Jesus would love to put them in their proper
place in that moment and, as with the adulteress woman, He could have done
that, except that the Father had other intentions for Him.
- Remember, this is not a time of condemnation,
but of salvation! The words that He offers during His earthly ministry are life
and peace! Even here, as direct as He is, He is so for their benefit!
- That is the Father's agenda through the Son
while men live here on Earth! "Come and find life in Jesus! Come and find
peace in Jesus!"
- The Jewish leaders had no idea that Jesus was
speaking to them of the Father! They were as blind as blind could be. Verse 28.
• John 8:28-30 : "Then Jesus said to them, 'When you lift up
the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things. And He who
sent Me is with Me. The
Father has not left Me alone, for I
always do those things that please Him.' As He spoke these words, many
believed in Him." : "When
you lift up the Son of Man." Keep in mind that the Jewish authorities
generally stoned it's criminals.
- The thought of a person being "lifted
up" was a euphemism relating to crucifixion! In order for Jesus to be
crucified, there would need to be collusion and cooperation from Rome!
- This was unthinkable to the Jewish mind, yet,
it was going to happen and Jesus wants them to know that He knew about it
before they even began the process!
- He is telling them here and now, that they
might know for certain that He is God! That is His gift to them! Only God knows
the beginning from the end!
- Perhaps, they will come to acknowledge Jesus
after He has died. For the Lord's part, He offers His Father perfect
submission. He would do nothing of Himself!
- Whatever He would never do anything except
what God the Father had told Him to do!
- He is the One who taught Him to say these
things to them! There is no comfort to be found in their reception, but in the
fact that God, His Father, was with Him!
- God had not abandoned Him even though it
seemed so in the eyes of these leaders! Unlike them, Jesus always did what
brought pleasure to the Father! Can you imagine anyone saying this?
- Despite the ruler's obstinance, many believed
in Him at His words! Even now, among His most hated and influential critics,
the Lord is winning souls! That's who He addresses in verse 31.
• John 8:31,32 : "Then Jesus said to those Jews who
believed Him, 'If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free.'" : These men and women are standing
there, having believed against incredible intimidation. They believed on Him
when their leaders refused to do the same!
- Consider the power of God's work. In some
respect, Jesus wasn't even making an evangelistic call, but the people God was
drawing heard Him loud and clear!
- Jesus won't let them go without a word to
guide their hearts. What should they do? "If you abide in my word."
"If you dwell, remain, continue to be present, in my word."
- The promise is for those with an endurance, a
desire to keep themselves in His word. What does that refer to?
- When you and I speak of His "word,"
we are referring to the completed canon of scripture known as the Bible! That
won't be compiled for many years.
- His "word" here refers to His
teachings about Himself! They were to remind themselves when they were
spiritually thirsty, that they had believed He would quench their thirst.
- They were to remain loyal to Him when their
hunger called for "bread." Remaining, abiding in His message about
Himself would mean that they would satisfy themselves with Him!
- That person is the one who is a true disciple
of Christ! This is a person who, despite the feeling of the moment, the impulse
of the day, will cling to what they know is true in Christ!
- That person will know the truth. They will
understand, perceive what is true and that knowledge of the truth, will
liberate them from their present condition!
- They will not be in bondage to their emotions.
They will not be subjugated to their past. They will have the choice to hold
onto truth and be liberated from the lies they would tell themselves.
- The "truth" that the Pharisees
believed was a lie that kept them in bondage. They would not be free until they
believed in Him. Verse 33.
• John 8:33-36 : "They answered Him, 'We are Abraham’s
descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free’?' Jesus answered them, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave
does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed." : This is an interesting point of
theological concern. The Jews were in fact, blood related to Abraham.
- However, their assertion about never having
been in bondage was flawed. Perhaps if they added the phrase, "except
Egypt, and the Assyrians, and the Babylonians and the Medes!"
- For that matter, there was a Roman soldier
eating a salami sandwich just a few feet away! They had never been free, but
that isn't what Jesus was referring to.
- There are people today who are not slaves,
but they are certainly not free! They are slaves to sin because they continue
to commit sin. It is their practice!
- The Pharisees were slaves to their own
intellect which got in the way of their ability to recognize their Messiah.
They were slaves to their own pride and religious arrogance.
- They were trapped in this condition because
they refused, the suppressed the impulse to believe in their Messiah, who stood
right in front of them!
- Jesus closes our section today with an
illustration. A slave wasn't a permanent member of any household. They could be
sold to another slave owner or killed for dereliction of duty.
- The best hope a slave could have was to be
set free by a member of the family. There isn't another slave that could do
that, but a son could!
- Jesus looks at the Pharisees and tells them
not to listen to their fellow slaves. They have no authority to judge Jesus or
set themselves free from their unbelief!
- Jesus says, "Believe upon me and you
will be set free!" Jesus alone can set a man free from His sin, so that he
is truly free! There is no freedom apart from Him! He offers that to them!
- We aren't going to proceed further, but
suffice it to say, the Pharisee's flatly refuse!
Conclusion
- If you are listening to Jesus today, hear Him
say that He is who He says He is. He is the eternal God, the Bread of Life, the
Light of the World!
- What you do or do not believe about that
matters little to what is true about that! You cannot affect reality. He is who
He says He is!
- What you believe about Him though matters
more to you than you can ever know! He will not give you any new information
about Himself!
- Yes, He will answer your doubts and concerns,
but not before you bow your knee before Him and call Him "Lord, Master and
Savior!"
- Jesus looks you in the eye and says that He
has the power to free you from your prison of unbelief! Will you be free? If
the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed!
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