Shownotes
What is sin? How does it affect us? Can we not just work hard to overcome it? In John 7-8 sinful people come up against the God who they sin against. Throughout the story you can see how sin enslaves people and destroys logic, freedom and life. Thankfully, Jesus has come to set people free. Join Dave as he explores these tense and astounding chapters.
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Transcripts
G'day everyone. Dave Whittingham here.
Speaker:Welcome to stories of a faithful God.
Speaker:Before we get into it today, I have a couple of quick announcements.
Speaker:Firstly, if you're into instagram and you've looked at the stories of a faithful God
Speaker:account, you've probably seen that there's basically nothing there that's changed.
Speaker:After much gentle encouragement, I'm now posting short 1 minute videos talking about
Speaker:pretty much anything to do with the christian life.
Speaker:Its also on TikTok with the same videos.
Speaker:If you prefer that platform, just search for
Speaker:stories of a faithful God and hit follow on either platform.
Speaker:Secondly, many of you will be familiar with an event thats usually printed in our bibles at
Speaker:the start of John chapter eight.
Speaker:Its the story of when an adulterous woman is
Speaker:brought to Jesus for judgment and he chooses not to condemn her.
Speaker:If you are familiar with it, youll know that its usually printed in brackets with a note
Speaker:that reads something like the earliest and most reliable manuscripts do not have this
Speaker:passage.
Speaker:Basically, John never wrote that passage.
Speaker:And if you look at what comes either side, its pretty obvious that someones literally cut in
Speaker:halfway through a conversation and dropped the story in there.
Speaker:Thats a really short explanation for saying why im not going to be talking about it in
Speaker:todays story.
Speaker:If you want a much fuller explanation then boy
Speaker:do I have some exciting news for you.
Speaker:Something big is about to happen in the world
Speaker:of stories of a faithful God.
Speaker:Podcasts in the next couple of weeks I'll be
Speaker:launching the stories of a faithful God club.
Speaker:That's right, you heard it here first.
Speaker:The stories of a faithful God club will be launching very, very soon.
Speaker:What is this club, I hear you ask? Its a very exclusive club for those who want
Speaker:to hear more, think more, learn more, itll include exclusive bonus episodes thatll bounce
Speaker:off things weve covered here on the main stream.
Speaker:Things like what is that bit about Jesus and the adulterous woman?
Speaker:Should it be in the Bible? How have people decided what is in the Bible
Speaker:in the first place and what isnt? Whats happened in those last 2000 years to put
Speaker:this English Bible in my hands? Most importantly, can I trust it?
Speaker:Well cover theological ideas like what is the Trinity?
Speaker:Why is it so good? Why have so many people rejected the idea?
Speaker:Well look at historical things like what happened to Judah between the Old Testament
Speaker:and the New Testament.
Speaker:What was life really like in Jesus day?
Speaker:Most of the time these bonus episodes will be interviews and discussions, but occasionally I
Speaker:might just go it alone as well.
Speaker:I'm just finalising the practical details, but
Speaker:it's going to launch sometime in the next couple of weeks.
Speaker:Keep an ear out.
Speaker:Stories of a faithful God club.
Speaker:And now on with the show.
Speaker:Let me start with a question to get our minds
Speaker:into the story today.
Speaker:What is sin?
Speaker:This thing we talk about, the thing that Jesus came to deal with, what is it?
Speaker:How do you spot it? How do you get rid of it?
Speaker:Is it really that bad? There are lots of words that can be used to
Speaker:describe it.
Speaker:You can say it's rebellion against God.
Speaker:You can say it's selfishness.
Speaker:You can say it's the desire to be in charge of
Speaker:our own lives instead of letting God be in charge.
Speaker:Those are some of my go to descriptions and I'm confident that they're right.
Speaker:But even as I say them, I feel like they don't fully capture the power and evil of sin.
Speaker:It's hard to feel the horror of it.
Speaker:When we read the stories in the Bible, we see
Speaker:ideas in action.
Speaker:So there's the idea that God's faithful.
Speaker:Through the Bible stories, we see his faithfulness in action.
Speaker:We see salvation in action.
Speaker:We see justice and mercy in action.
Speaker:In today's passage, we take a deep dive into the world of sin.
Speaker:We see what happens when people whose hearts are set against God meet God in the flesh.
Speaker:What does it make them do? How does it affect the way they think?
Speaker:Most importantly, what does Jesus do in the face of sin?
Speaker:Don't worry, this passage isn't all doom and gloom.
Speaker:Even as Jesus is tackling the forces of darkness, he's proclaiming salvation from that
Speaker:darkness, and some people start to believe in him.
Speaker:But the passage does teach us the power and danger of sin.
Speaker:It's a lesson we need to learn so we can see it in ourselves and keep coming to Jesus for
Speaker:help.
Speaker:And also to understand the world around us,
Speaker:why it functions the way it does.
Speaker:And so, without further ado, I present to you
Speaker:our next episode of stories of a faithful goddess.
Speaker:Perhaps more than any of the other gospel writers, John provides a sequence of events in
Speaker:historical order.
Speaker:Jesus starts in obscurity, but at his first
Speaker:public Passover in Jerusalem, he gets believers and enemies.
Speaker:He heads back to Galilee, where his fame follows him.
Speaker:But it's a fame not yet grounded in firm belief.
Speaker:He returns to Jerusalem for another festival, where he miraculously heals a man who's been
Speaker:sick for 38 years.
Speaker:And yet this creates more opposition, even to
Speaker:the point of people wanting to kill them.
Speaker:He goes back home to Galilee, where again
Speaker:people welcome him and are excited by him.
Speaker:But as we saw at the end of the last episode,
Speaker:they abandoned him when he didn't keep the flow of miracles coming.
Speaker:The miracles are meant to be signs pointing to who Jesus is.
Speaker:But the people didn't really care about Jesus.
Speaker:They just cared about the miracles.
Speaker:So todays passage in John, chapter seven starts with that apparent failure hanging over
Speaker:the whole scene.
Speaker:Jesus is still in Galilee.
Speaker:Theres less murderous opposition there, but heaps of people have deserted him.
Speaker:Another festival is about to happen in Jerusalem where already the jewish leaders are
Speaker:wanting to kill him for blasphemy for claiming equality with God.
Speaker:And the gossip is flying.
Speaker:Will Jesus come to the festival?
Speaker:Is it too dangerous for him? Is he good?
Speaker:Is he bad? His brothers, they kind of take it on
Speaker:themselves to be his social media and pr advisors.
Speaker:In chapter seven, verse three, they say to Jesus, leave here and go to Judea so that your
Speaker:disciples can see your works that you're doing.
Speaker:For no one does anything in secret while he's seeking public recognition.
Speaker:If you do these things, show yourself to the world.
Speaker:They're like, come on, you gotta get out there, press the flesh, show the miracles.
Speaker:If you want to be famous, it's just what you've got to do.
Speaker:And it sounds like good advice, doesn't it? Surely Jesus came to draw the crowds for
Speaker:people to know him and see him.
Speaker:That's a good thing, right?
Speaker:Except the next thing John tells us would suggest not after they've given this advice,
Speaker:John tells us in verse five for not even his brothers believed in him.
Speaker:What's wrong with what they've said? Why is their advice about being a public
Speaker:figure so defective? I think it's because of what they've told him
Speaker:to do, what they're encouraging him to do.
Speaker:They're encouraging him to be more public with
Speaker:his works by which I think they mean his miraculous works.
Speaker:Go to Judea so that your disciples can see your works that you're doing.
Speaker:The brothers don't see the works or signs or miracles as pointers to Jesus identity.
Speaker:They see them as crowd pleasers.
Speaker:If you want to get more people in Jesus, do
Speaker:more miracles.
Speaker:But that was exactly the problem.
Speaker:At the feeding of the 5000 Jesus did the miracle.
Speaker:People were excited.
Speaker:But when Jesus tried to use the miracle to
Speaker:help them see something more important help them get eternal life through him they didn't
Speaker:want a bar of it.
Speaker:They wanted more miracles.
Speaker:And when he didn't deliver on demand, they abandoned him.
Speaker:But we don't get eternal life by watching miracles.
Speaker:We get it by believing in Jesus.
Speaker:The brothers haven't understood that yet.
Speaker:They're not thinking like God thinks yet.
Speaker:Jesus responds by highlighting the division
Speaker:between him and them.
Speaker:They're still on the side of the rebellious,
Speaker:sinful world.
Speaker:In verse six, Jesus says, my time has not yet
Speaker:arrived, but your time is always at hand.
Speaker:The world cannot hate you.
Speaker:But it does hate me, because I testify about it that its works are evil.
Speaker:Go up to the festival yourselves.
Speaker:Im not going up to this festival because my
Speaker:time has not yet fully come.
Speaker:So the brothers head off without him.
Speaker:Then, a little surprisingly, Jesus heads off too.
Speaker:Not publicly, but in secret.
Speaker:Its like hes saying to the brothers, I wont go
Speaker:on your terms.
Speaker:I wont go to fulfill peoples false
Speaker:expectations of me.
Speaker:Meanwhile in Jerusalem, the city's buzzing.
Speaker:John tells us in verse eleven, the Jews were looking for him at the festival and saying,
Speaker:where is he? And there was a lot of murmuring about him
Speaker:among the crowds.
Speaker:Some were saying, he's a good man.
Speaker:Others were saying, no, on the contrary, he's deceiving the people.
Speaker:Still, nobody was talking publicly about him for fear of the Jews.
Speaker:You see there how it's not just dangerous now to be Jesus, it's also dangerous to be
Speaker:associated with Jesus.
Speaker:That's why last time Jesus was in Jerusalem,
Speaker:the man he'd healed on the Sabbath was so quick to help the Jews with their inquiries
Speaker:about Jesus.
Speaker:He didn't want to be in trouble as well.
Speaker:The festival is the festival of shelters, or the festival of booths or tabernacles or
Speaker:tents.
Speaker:It's a week long festival where even though
Speaker:people have flocked the city, they live in temporary shelters for a week.
Speaker:They're meant to celebrate it at harvest time, giving thanks to God for all the blessings
Speaker:he's given them.
Speaker:They live in shelters to remind them of the
Speaker:time when God rescued them from Egypt, the time when they lived in tents in the
Speaker:wilderness before they came to the promised land.
Speaker:It's a reminder that everything they have is a result of God's salvation work.
Speaker:Jesus goes through the first half of the week completely unnoticed.
Speaker:He really is there in secret.
Speaker:But then he heads up to the temple, not to do
Speaker:miracles, but to teach publicly, in full view of his enemies who want him dead.
Speaker:And his teaching blows people away.
Speaker:They can't understand how this country
Speaker:bumpkin, who's never been to one of the special religious schools for people like the
Speaker:Pharisees, can teach with so much depth and insight.
Speaker:Jesus answer is simple.
Speaker:Hes like, hey, im not making this stuff up.
Speaker:The one who sent me meaning his father in heaven told me what to say and im saying it.
Speaker:He also says that if they really want to know God, if theyre genuine about wanting to obey
Speaker:him, theyll be able to work out if hes from God or not.
Speaker:Its a challenge to the crowd.
Speaker:He knows he's from God.
Speaker:All the evidence and testimony points that way.
Speaker:So if they say he's not from God, it actually says more about them and their sinful hearts
Speaker:than it says about him.
Speaker:In fact, Jesus knows that lots of them aren't
Speaker:genuine.
Speaker:So he stops the subtle approach and calls them
Speaker:out.
Speaker:In verse 19 he says, didn't Moses give you the
Speaker:law? Yet none of you keeps the law?
Speaker:Why are you trying to kill me? Have you ever had someone suddenly reveal a
Speaker:secret about you? That's pretty embarrassing.
Speaker:We know from back in chapter five that people are trying to kill Jesus, but they don't want
Speaker:Jesus to know about it.
Speaker:Remember, though, one of Jesus titles way back
Speaker:in chapter one, he's called the light.
Speaker:John, chapter one, verse four says about
Speaker:Jesus, in him was life, and that life was the light of men.
Speaker:That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it.
Speaker:His enemies have been plotting evil in darkness, but he shines a light on their evil.
Speaker:The response of the crowd is not to be appalled by that evil, but to accuse Jesus of
Speaker:evil instead.
Speaker:They yell in verse 20, you have a demon who's
Speaker:trying to kill you.
Speaker:Jesus doesn't name names.
Speaker:Instead, he focuses on the reason they want him dead.
Speaker:It had kicked off when he'd healed someone on the Sabbath last time he was in Jerusalem.
Speaker:They were all appalled that he'd break God's Sabbath law from the ten Commandments.
Speaker:Except he didn't.
Speaker:He'd only broken their false, self righteous
Speaker:laws.
Speaker:And in fact, Jesus points out that they
Speaker:themselves seemed to break those laws.
Speaker:He explains their hypocrisy by talking about
Speaker:circumcision.
Speaker:The law says you have to circumcise a baby boy
Speaker:on the 8th day after his birth.
Speaker:My maths isnt great, but by my calculation,
Speaker:that means that roughly one in eight boys will be circumcised on a Sabbath.
Speaker:It doesnt bother God.
Speaker:And it doesnt seem to bother these guys
Speaker:either.
Speaker:So Jesus says in verse 23, if a man receives
Speaker:circumcision on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses wont be broken.
Speaker:Are you angry at me because I made a man entirely well on the Sabbath?
Speaker:Stop judging according to outward appearances.
Speaker:Rather judge according to righteous judgment.
Speaker:In other words, you cut bits off on a sabbath.
Speaker:Why is it bad for me to actually fix someone?
Speaker:Jesus? The light is exposing their hypocrisy, their
Speaker:willingness to do certain things themselves, but then want to kill Jesus for doing
Speaker:something even better.
Speaker:He's exposing the darkness of their hearts and
Speaker:their evil, but he invites them to join him in the light to accept the truth and think
Speaker:rightly.
Speaker:The hypocrisy is seen again in the whispered
Speaker:conversations of Jerusalem.
Speaker:The crowd had accused Jesus of having a demon
Speaker:for thinking someone's trying to kill him.
Speaker:It turns out its actually public knowledge
Speaker:that people are trying to kill him.
Speaker:When your hearts driven by sin, youll say
Speaker:anything, even when you know its not true.
Speaker:Of course, the knowledge that the leaders want
Speaker:Jesus dead makes people really confused.
Speaker:They say, isnt this the man theyre trying to
Speaker:kill? Yet look, hes speaking publicly and theyre
Speaker:saying nothing to him.
Speaker:Can it be true that the authorities know he is
Speaker:the Messiah? But we know where this man is from.
Speaker:When the Messiah comes, nobody will know where he's from.
Speaker:What they know is that he's Jesus of Nazareth, but actually they don't know where he's from.
Speaker:Nazareth isn't his origin story.
Speaker:We heard his true story back in chapter one.
Speaker:In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was goddesse.
Speaker:The reason they're confused isn't because they don't know where he was born.
Speaker:It's because they haven't understood the signs he's done, the signs that show he's from God.
Speaker:It's because they don't know God, even though they're in the temple supposedly to worship
Speaker:God.
Speaker:So Jesus cries out in verse 28, you know me
Speaker:and you know where I am from.
Speaker:Yet I have not come on my own.
Speaker:But the one who sent me is true.
Speaker:You don't know him.
Speaker:I know him because I am from him and he sent me.
Speaker:Then we get this kind of weird line in verse 30.
Speaker:Then they tried to seize him.
Speaker:Yet no one laid a hand on him because his hour
Speaker:had not yet come.
Speaker:In other words, Jesus is going to be seized.
Speaker:He is going to be killed, but not in their timing.
Speaker:They don't set the agenda.
Speaker:God sets the agenda.
Speaker:He sets the hour.
Speaker:Not everyone's so hard hearted as these
Speaker:people, though.
Speaker:Some people haven't just seen or heard about
Speaker:the miracles.
Speaker:They've accepted them as the signs about Jesus
Speaker:identity that they really are.
Speaker:So they say in verse 31, when the Messiah
Speaker:comes, he won't perform more signs than this man has done.
Speaker:Will he? In a sense, they're stating the blindingly.
Speaker:Obviously, everything about Jesus points to him being the Christ or messiah.
Speaker:It should be as plain as the nose on your face.
Speaker:Except sin makes you blind.
Speaker:The people's hard hearts are so darkened in
Speaker:their selfish rebellion against God.
Speaker:They can't see the light.
Speaker:Around about now, the Pharisees and chief priests realize that their inaction isn't
Speaker:helping their cause.
Speaker:So they send some servants to arrest Jesus.
Speaker:What they don't do, what they might regret in a little while, is give the servants some
Speaker:noise cancelling headphones.
Speaker:You'll see why pretty soon.
Speaker:Meanwhile, Jesus is still speaking in the temple.
Speaker:And it's like he knows they're about to make a move.
Speaker:And so he tells the crowd about how soon he'll be going away.
Speaker:And they won't be able to follow him.
Speaker:He's talking, of course, about his return to
Speaker:his father in heaven.
Speaker:But the Jews are just confused.
Speaker:They're still thinking geographically.
Speaker:In verse 35, they say, where does he intend to
Speaker:go so that we won't find him? He doesn't intend to go to the jewish people,
Speaker:dispersed among the Greeks and teach the Greeks, does he?
Speaker:What is this remark he's made? You will look for me, and you will not find
Speaker:me.
Speaker:And where I am, you cannot come.
Speaker:Even though they don't get it, Jesus is saying again that his movements are not dictated by
Speaker:them.
Speaker:They're not directed by the priests or
Speaker:Pharisees, by the mob or the servants coming to arrest him.
Speaker:God's in charge.
Speaker:This is shown in the fact that a few days go
Speaker:past and Jesus still hasn't been arrested.
Speaker:Now we've come to the final day of the feast.
Speaker:The greatest day of the feast.
Speaker:On this day, everyone gathers at the temple.
Speaker:The high priest goes down to the pool of Siloam and collects water in a golden vessel.
Speaker:He carries it in a great procession.
Speaker:And as he enters the temple, everyone cheers.
Speaker:Remember, this is a harvest festival.
Speaker:And the water represents the water that's
Speaker:brought about the harvest.
Speaker:It represents life.
Speaker:The water is carried to the altar and poured out before God, the giver of life.
Speaker:The giver of the water of life.
Speaker:And with this great ceremony at the front of
Speaker:everyone's minds, Jesus stands up in the crowd and yells out in verse 37, if anyone is
Speaker:thirsty, let him come to me and drink.
Speaker:The one who believes in me, as the scripture
Speaker:has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.
Speaker:In the Old Testament, God invites people to come to him and drink.
Speaker:And Jesus is picking up on that.
Speaker:What's amazing is that he's saying, if you
Speaker:want that living water, if you want the life that only God can give you, get it through
Speaker:him.
Speaker:God's prophets talked about how the time when
Speaker:water flows will be a time when sin is washed away, when forgiveness comes and hearts are
Speaker:changed.
Speaker:People won't want to sin anymore.
Speaker:They won't be defined by sin anymore.
Speaker:And the reason is that God will put something,
Speaker:someone inside his people that'll transform their hearts from hearts of stone to hearts of
Speaker:flesh.
Speaker:He'll put his holy spirit inside them.
Speaker:And that's exactly what Jesus is promising.
Speaker:In verse 39, John tells us, he said this about
Speaker:the spirit.
Speaker:Those who believed in Jesus were going to
Speaker:receive the spirit, for the spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been
Speaker:glorified.
Speaker:Jesus is promising the fulfillment of all the
Speaker:promises, all the hopes of the Old Testament.
Speaker:The reason Israel has failed time and time
Speaker:again was because they couldn't overcome.
Speaker:No one, including us, can overcome the power
Speaker:of sin in our hearts, but God can.
Speaker:And that time is here.
Speaker:God the father sent his son to give people his spirit to save people.
Speaker:Some of the people in the crowd hear Jesus words and they realize he's speaking the
Speaker:truth.
Speaker:He really is the prophet and Christ bringing
Speaker:in the great age of salvation.
Speaker:But others are still blind.
Speaker:In verse 41, they say, surely the Messiah doesn't come from Galilee, does he?
Speaker:Doesn't the scripture say that the Messiah comes from David's offspring and from the town
Speaker:of Bethlehem where David lived? Again, that question about where Jesus is
Speaker:from.
Speaker:Of course we know that Jesus actually was born
Speaker:in Bethlehem because we have the other gospels.
Speaker:John hasnt mentioned Jesus birth in Bethlehem, though not because hes denying it, but because
Speaker:hes saying, look at all the evidence you can see.
Speaker:Thats enough.
Speaker:Its enough to prompt you to try and find out
Speaker:where hes from rather than just assume that you know.
Speaker:Then we're told some of them wanted to seize him, but no one laid hands on him.
Speaker:Some of the people who don't lay hands on him are the servants sent to arrest him.
Speaker:Imagine the surprise of the chief priests and Pharisees when the servants come back empty
Speaker:handed.
Speaker:It's not like Jesus is hiding.
Speaker:He's just stood up and yelled in the most public manner possible.
Speaker:And so they ask, why didn't you bring him? And the servants reply in verse 46, no man
Speaker:ever spoke like this.
Speaker:That's why they should have given them the
Speaker:noise cancelling headphones.
Speaker:The servants have been stunned and won over to
Speaker:Jesus by his words.
Speaker:Again, the leaders show that because they hate
Speaker:Jesus.
Speaker:They'll also hate anyone associated with
Speaker:Jesus.
Speaker:They say to the servants, are you fooled too?
Speaker:Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in him?
Speaker:But this crowd, which doesn't know the law, is accursed.
Speaker:The air of righteous indignation.
Speaker:The assumption that they speak for God, that
Speaker:they're the holy ones.
Speaker:It's so arrogant.
Speaker:They refuse to examine the evidence honestly and openly.
Speaker:At this point, someone very bravely speaks up.
Speaker:Someone we met before, back in chapter three.
Speaker:Nicodemus.
Speaker:That chapter gave us no indication of how
Speaker:Nicodemus responded to Jesus after their conversation.
Speaker:The last time we saw him, he just seemed confused.
Speaker:But now we see he's still trying to work Jesus out.
Speaker:He's still on a journey of discovery.
Speaker:And he's much more honest in that journey than
Speaker:the other Pharisees around him.
Speaker:He says to them in verse 52, our law doesn't
Speaker:judge a man before it hears from him and knows what he's doing, does it?
Speaker:He's saying, hey, let's look at the evidence.
Speaker:Let's listen and see what he says.
Speaker:He has a really honest approach.
Speaker:But they're having none of it.
Speaker:Again, they respond with an insult.
Speaker:You aren't from Galilee too, are you?
Speaker:Investigate and you'll see that no prophet arises from Galilee.
Speaker:Now remember back to chapter one.
Speaker:When Philip was invited to see Jesus of
Speaker:Nazareth, who might be the messiah.
Speaker:His first response was to say that nothing
Speaker:good comes out of Nazareth.
Speaker:But he then went to Jesus and investigated
Speaker:honestly.
Speaker:And became convinced that Jesus is the Christ.
Speaker:Jesus even recognized his honesty.
Speaker:And said, look.
Speaker:An israelite in whom there's no deceit.
Speaker:These guys aren't like that.
Speaker:They use their insults as an excuse not to investigate further.
Speaker:They're deceiving themselves.
Speaker:They prefer the darkness instead of the light.
Speaker:As well as the water ceremony, the feast of shelters is celebrated with light.
Speaker:In the temple, there are four enormous columns.
Speaker:With cauldrons on the top for fire.
Speaker:Think of four giant olympic torches.
Speaker:Blazing their light over the whole of Jerusalem.
Speaker:The irony is that so many of the Jews are living in darkness.
Speaker:Blinded by their sin.
Speaker:Jesus stands up to invite them out of that
Speaker:darkness.
Speaker:He announces in verse 14, I am the light of
Speaker:the world.
Speaker:Anyone who follows me will never walk in
Speaker:darkness, but will have the light of life.
Speaker:It's a wonderful invitation to give sight to
Speaker:the blind, life to the dead.
Speaker:But the Pharisees are having none of it.
Speaker:They're now desperate to undermine Jesus.
Speaker:They try to make it seem like his massive
Speaker:claims are baseless, like they have no evidence behind them.
Speaker:They say to him, you are testifying about yourself.
Speaker:Your testimony is not valid.
Speaker:This is willful ignorance on their behalf.
Speaker:You may remember that the last time Jesus was in Jerusalem, he laid down the basis for his
Speaker:claims.
Speaker:He talked about the testimony of John the
Speaker:Baptist, the evidence of the signs of miracles.
Speaker:And the words that God wrote in the Old Testament.
Speaker:The testimony about him is strong and convincing.
Speaker:Jesus doesnt go over all that again, though.
Speaker:He simply says that what he says is true, and
Speaker:its backed up by his father.
Speaker:That should be enough for them to accept him.
Speaker:But in their sin, theyre not willing to follow the law that they claim so boldly to uphold.
Speaker:Jesus says in verse 17, even in your law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is
Speaker:true.
Speaker:I am the one who testifies about myself.
Speaker:And the father who sent me testifies about me.
Speaker:Then they asked him, where is your father?
Speaker:This is a trick question again.
Speaker:At his last visit, Jesus had called God his
Speaker:father, making himself equal with God.
Speaker:They know his answer.
Speaker:They're just trying to trap him.
Speaker:Instead of being trapped, Jesus uses their
Speaker:question to show how they don't know God.
Speaker:You know neither me nor my father.
Speaker:Jesus answered, if you knew me, you would also know my father.
Speaker:He spoke these words by the treasury while teaching in the temple.
Speaker:But no one seized him because his hour had not yet come.
Speaker:In other words, Jesus isn't hiding, but he is in control.
Speaker:The Pharisees refusal to listen to Jesus.
Speaker:Their willful ignorance, their disobedience to
Speaker:the law.
Speaker:It puts them in deadly danger.
Speaker:Time and time and time again, we've seen the link between knowing God the father and
Speaker:knowing Jesus.
Speaker:If you know Jesus, you know the father.
Speaker:If you reject Jesus, you reject God.
Speaker:You reject life.
Speaker:You're stuck in death.
Speaker:So jesus says to them in verse 21, I'm going
Speaker:away.
Speaker:You will look for me, and you will die in your
Speaker:sin.
Speaker:Where I'm going, you cannot come.
Speaker:So the Jews said again, he won't kill himself, will he?
Speaker:Since he says, where I'm going, you cannot come.
Speaker:You are from below.
Speaker:He told them, I am from above.
Speaker:You are of this world.
Speaker:I am not of this world.
Speaker:Therefore, I told you that you will die in your sins.
Speaker:For if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.
Speaker:These are religious leaders, the people who are meant to know God really well.
Speaker:It's shocking to suggest that they're going to die in their sins.
Speaker:But it's true.
Speaker:They don't know God.
Speaker:Just this week, a religious leader, someone who lots of people think of as the great
Speaker:christian leader, showed the same problem as these leaders.
Speaker:Pope Francis, speaking to a crowd in Singapore, said, all religions are a path to
Speaker:goddess.
Speaker:They're like different languages in order to
Speaker:arrive at God.
Speaker:But God is God for all.
Speaker:This is the exact opposite of what Jesus says.
Speaker:Jesus says, if you do not believe that I am
Speaker:he, you will die in your sins.
Speaker:The pope says he represents Christ, but he's
Speaker:happy to say that people who reject Jesus or don't treat him as the one true path to
Speaker:salvation are fine.
Speaker:The pope is not siding with Jesus, just like
Speaker:these leaders aren't siding with Jesus.
Speaker:And because of that, they're condemning
Speaker:themselves to death in their sin.
Speaker:In a minute, we'll see there's someone else
Speaker:that they're siding with as well.
Speaker:The Pharisees keep going around in circles.
Speaker:They ask Jesus, who are you? And Jesus replies in exasperation, exactly
Speaker:what I've been telling you from the very beginning.
Speaker:This is what dishonest people do, people who don't really want to know the answers.
Speaker:They go around and around asking the same questions in slightly different ways, looking
Speaker:for a way to trap you.
Speaker:Jesus knows that they're trying to get him
Speaker:killed.
Speaker:He knows that they will have him killed.
Speaker:But it won't be the moment of their victory.
Speaker:It'll be the moment of the greatest revelation
Speaker:of who he is, the full and final answer to their question, who are you?
Speaker:Just like he said back in chapter two, when they asked for a sign proving his authority,
Speaker:and he said, destroy this temple and I'll raise it up again in three days.
Speaker:Talking about his body now, again in verse 28, he points to the cross and says, when ye lift
Speaker:up the son of Mandev, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own.
Speaker:But just as the father taught me, I say these things.
Speaker:The one who sent me is with me.
Speaker:He has not left me alone because I always do
Speaker:what pleases him.
Speaker:And John tells us that as he was saying these
Speaker:things, many believed in him.
Speaker:The tension is rising.
Speaker:But at the same time, for some people at least, Jesus words seem to be cutting through
Speaker:as we've seen through John.
Speaker:Though belief can be fleeting, it can have the
Speaker:appearance of real belief, but soon be gone with the wind.
Speaker:It's like a spark in a fireplace that needs to be fanned into flame.
Speaker:And so Jesus speaks to the people who seem to be coming on board and he makes a wonderful
Speaker:promise.
Speaker:He says, if you continue in my word, you
Speaker:really are my disciples.
Speaker:You will know the truth, and the truth will
Speaker:set you free.
Speaker:Those words have been misused over and over
Speaker:and over again throughout history, including as the motto of the CIA.
Speaker:But you see here the real way to the truth, the way to true freedom, is by believing in
Speaker:Jesus, believing his word, by becoming a real disciple of Jesus.
Speaker:But it raises the obvious.
Speaker:Freedom from what?
Speaker:What do people need to be set free from? The people listening to Jesus dont think they
Speaker:need to be freed from anything.
Speaker:They respond to Jesus with the most
Speaker:remarkable, proud, blatantly untrue boast.
Speaker:Its what happens when you set yourself against
Speaker:Jesus.
Speaker:Youre forced to cling to lies, no matter how
Speaker:ludicrous.
Speaker:In verse 33, they say, we are descendants of
Speaker:Abraham and we have never been enslaved to anyone.
Speaker:How can you say you will become free? Such a ridiculous thing to say.
Speaker:Forget for the moment that they're currently living in a roman province.
Speaker:Forget that for the last 600 years, there've been a political football tossed between the
Speaker:great empires of the age.
Speaker:The Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, the
Speaker:Romans.
Speaker:Just ask, what are they all doing in Jerusalem
Speaker:at this very moment? They're celebrating the feast of shelters.
Speaker:They've been living in tents and shelters for a week to remind them of when God rescued them
Speaker:from slavery.
Speaker:They're not interested in the truth, and
Speaker:that's because of a far deeper slavery.
Speaker:They're in a slavery that's infected humanity
Speaker:since Adam.
Speaker:Jesus tells them, truly, I tell you, everyone
Speaker:who commits sin is a slave of sin.
Speaker:That's a pretty offensive idea, isn't it?
Speaker:Just like these Jews, people today want to believe they're free.
Speaker:They want to believe they set their own course and agenda.
Speaker:I'm free to make my own decisions and choose my own lifestyle.
Speaker:And Jesus says, no, you're not.
Speaker:You think you're free, but actually you're
Speaker:enslaved to that relentless desire to reject God.
Speaker:When Adam and Eve first ate the fruit, they thought they were setting themselves free,
Speaker:free from God, free from his kingship.
Speaker:But they were just handing themselves and all
Speaker:of humanity over to be shackled and chained into destruction and death.
Speaker:But Jesus comes with good news.
Speaker:News of hope.
Speaker:The one who is rejected and continues to be rejected has come to free people from that
Speaker:slavery.
Speaker:The son of the household is here with grace to
Speaker:give.
Speaker:He tells them, so if the Son sets you free,
Speaker:you really will be free.
Speaker:He knows, though, that lots of them don't want
Speaker:to be set free.
Speaker:They don't want to acknowledge their slavery.
Speaker:And so Jesus highlights the chasm between him and them, between the goodness of his work and
Speaker:the evil of theirs.
Speaker:Between the goodness of his father, who sent
Speaker:him, and the evil of their father, who they obey.
Speaker:He says, I know you are descendants of Abraham, but you are trying to kill me because
Speaker:my word has no place among you.
Speaker:I speak what I have seen in the presence of
Speaker:the father.
Speaker:So then you do what you have heard from your
Speaker:father.
Speaker:This feels like a slap in the face to them.
Speaker:They're so proud of their heritage.
Speaker:They're linked to Abraham and the promises of
Speaker:God.
Speaker:But Jesus is saying, if you belong to Abraham,
Speaker:you'd act like Abraham.
Speaker:But instead, you're acting like someone else.
Speaker:As I read this next exchange, feel the weight of what Jesus is accusing them of.
Speaker:In verse 39, they say our father is Abraham.
Speaker:If you were Abraham's children, Jesus told
Speaker:them you would do what Abraham did.
Speaker:But now you are trying to kill me, a man who
Speaker:has told you the truth that I heard from God.
Speaker:Abraham did not do this.
Speaker:You're doing what your father does.
Speaker:We weren't born of sexual immorality, they
Speaker:said.
Speaker:We have one father, God.
Speaker:See how they've upped the ante there? Now they've gone even further than Abraham and
Speaker:claimed God is their father.
Speaker:Ironically, that's exactly what they wanted to
Speaker:kill Jesus for back in chapter five.
Speaker:Their slavery to sin makes them say things
Speaker:that don't make sense.
Speaker:Jesus continues, if God were your father, you
Speaker:would love me.
Speaker:Because I am from God and I am here.
Speaker:For I didn't come on my own, but he sent me.
Speaker:Why don't you understand what I say?
Speaker:Because you cannot listen to my word.
Speaker:You are of your father, the devil, and you
Speaker:want to carry out your father's desires.
Speaker:He was a murderer from the beginning and does
Speaker:not stand in the truth.
Speaker:Because there is no truth in him.
Speaker:When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature.
Speaker:Because he is a liar and the father of lies.
Speaker:Yet because I tell the truth, you do not
Speaker:believe me.
Speaker:Who among you can convict me of sin?
Speaker:If I am telling the truth, why dont you believe me?
Speaker:The one who is from God listens to gods words.
Speaker:That is why you dont listen.
Speaker:Because you are not from God.
Speaker:The Jews responded to him.
Speaker:Arent we right in saying that youre a samaritan and have a demon?
Speaker:There are two different stories here.
Speaker:The Jews are saying that they're free.
Speaker:They're children of Abraham and children of God.
Speaker:They also say Jesus has a demon.
Speaker:Jesus, on the other hand, says he's the true
Speaker:son of God and that they're children of the devil.
Speaker:Who's right? Do we need to even say?
Speaker:Can't we all live out our own truth? No. This is a matter of life and death.
Speaker:So what have we seen? We've seen the Jews tell lie after lie,
Speaker:claiming they don't want to kill him, claiming they've always been free, wanting to kill him
Speaker:for one thing, then doing exactly the same thing, accusing him of breaking the law, but
Speaker:then not following that law themselves.
Speaker:Whereas Jesus words have been shown time and
Speaker:time again to be true and powerful, healing the sick, giving joy and hope, saving from
Speaker:death.
Speaker:John's been carefully laying out the case
Speaker:throughout his gospel to show us who's in the right.
Speaker:Because John wants us to know.
Speaker:Jesus wants us to know that there's a way out
Speaker:of the slavery to sin and Satan.
Speaker:Jesus is here to shine light into darkness,
Speaker:shine truth onto lies, to break the shackles that bind us, not just to sin, but to death
Speaker:itself.
Speaker:In verse 51, Jesus says, truly, I tell you, if
Speaker:anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.
Speaker:Then the Jews said, now we know you have a
Speaker:demon.
Speaker:Abraham died, and so did the prophets.
Speaker:You say, if anyone keeps my word, he'll never taste death.
Speaker:Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died and the prophets died?
Speaker:Who do you claim to be? That same question.
Speaker:Who are you? Who do you claim to be?
Speaker:Why do you think you can say all these things? Come on, Jesus, out with it.
Speaker:Jesus still doesn't answer directly.
Speaker:He tells them how.
Speaker:He's the one who obeys his father and is glorified by his father also.
Speaker:He's the one who brings hope.
Speaker:He says in verse 56, your father Abraham
Speaker:rejoiced to see my day.
Speaker:He saw it and was glad.
Speaker:The Jews replied, you aren't 50 years old yet, and you've seen Abraham.
Speaker:Jesus said to them, truly, I tell you before, Abraham Washington, I am.
Speaker:There it is, the plain statement from Jesus they've been waiting for.
Speaker:The most remarkable announcement in history.
Speaker:The one, true, only God, the God of Abraham,
Speaker:Isaac and Jacob, the God who rescued his people from slavery in Egypt with a mighty
Speaker:hand and outstretched arm, who brought them safely through the wilderness, living in
Speaker:shelters into the land flowing with milk and honey, where year on year, they could
Speaker:celebrate the plentiful harvest given by God.
Speaker:That God who declared his name to be I am.
Speaker:That God is standing right there in front of them in human form.
Speaker:All the evidence that John's laid out for us shows the truth of Jesus.
Speaker:Remarkable words.
Speaker:But they're enslaved to Liesen.
Speaker:In their slavery.
Speaker:They can't believe that their God's come to
Speaker:save them.
Speaker:They can only believe that this man is a fake
Speaker:and liar, and so they do exactly what he's been saying they want to do in verse 59.
Speaker:So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus was hidden and went out from the temple.
Speaker:What is sin? It's a grasping after freedom from God that
Speaker:only locks you into slavery.
Speaker:Slavery to sin, slavery to Satan, slavery to
Speaker:death.
Speaker:In our sin, we think we're chasing the truth,
Speaker:but we're enslaved to lies.
Speaker:In our sin, we think we're in charge of our
Speaker:own lives, but really we're enslaved to do whatever is against God and which leads to our
Speaker:destruction and death.
Speaker:Jesus came to show us that.
Speaker:We're enslaved to show that true freedom only comes from submitting to God as king.
Speaker:He shows the truth.
Speaker:He breaks the chains of evil.
Speaker:He gives us life.
Speaker:The only way out of sin to God is through
Speaker:Jesus.
Speaker:If you're not a believer in Jesus yet, why not
Speaker:start now? Come into the light.
Speaker:Come into the truth.
Speaker:Come to him and drink the water of life that
Speaker:only he can give.
Speaker:If you are a believer, give thanks to God for
Speaker:opening your eyes through Jesus.
Speaker:We haven't worked this out ourselves.
Speaker:He's the one who's opened our eyes.
Speaker:When you're talking to people who aren't
Speaker:believers yet, don't be surprised when they twist and bend in their words.
Speaker:When they say one thing 1 minute and something different the next minute.
Speaker:Don't be surprised when they wriggle and squirm to avoid the truth in ways that don't
Speaker:make any sense.
Speaker:They're enslaved.
Speaker:Also, don't condemn them.
Speaker:Don't think I'm so much better than them.
Speaker:Simply and gently show them the truth.
Speaker:Shine the light of Jesus onto their darkness.
Speaker:Some will run as hard as they can from that light, but some, some will rejoice.
Speaker:They'll be so excited to finally see what they could never see before.
Speaker:Jesus is about to meet a man like that.
Speaker:He's a blind man.
Speaker:But this blind man sees the light far more clearly than those around him with 2020
Speaker:vision.
Speaker:But that's a story for next time.
Speaker:Don't forget to check out stories of a faithful God on Instagram, TikTok, and
Speaker:Facebook, and keep an ear out for more details of the stories of a faithful God club.
Speaker:If you have any questions or comments, send them in through the contact button.
Speaker:On faithfulgod.net or in the show notes.
Speaker:And if you have a moment, please leave a
Speaker:rating and review on Apple Podcasts, or leave a rating and comment on Spotify.
Speaker:Keep trusting Jesus.
Speaker:Bye for now.
