Let Me Introduce You To God Series

There's a quote I like. I want to share with you this quote, first of all. I think it's a significant one.

It says, “People may spend their whole lives climbing the ladder of success, only to find once they reach the top that the ladder is leaning against the wrong wall.” I've heard that long ago, maybe even as a young person I heard it, but it rings in my life on a regular basis. Because I say to myself, “I want to be careful.” You know, obviously the wall I want my ladder leaning against is Jesus Christ being God and I trust Him in my life. That's what I want in my life. But there are tendencies I think that we have or I have that try to put my identity or confidence in other things and I want to be careful about that.

I think that's the problem the Pharisees have today in our passage in John 8:39-59. So you can open your Bible there to John 8:39-59 today. We're going to look at the Pharisees and we’re going to see the problem they have. Because I believe the problem they have is that their ladder is leaning against the wrong wall. It's a warning to me in my own life. Because I think many of those Pharisees started off well. They love God, they're sensitive to God, they want to serve God. But then somehow they moved in their hearts to something different than the confidence and identity in God Himself and more into some other things, as we'll see in the passage today. I don't want to do that. I don't want to fall into the temptation of relying on other things, other kind of confidences in my life.

I think sometimes today people’s confidence is in their job or in their career. Well yes, there are Christians, but Christianity is kind of that thing they tag on. When really if you ask them, “Who are you? What do you put your confidence in?” and some people put their confidence in their health, or their bank account, or the fact that they have a house, or they live in America. I mean whatever it is, there's a sense of identity and confidence that we all have and we want it to be in God, in Jesus as God in our lives.

That's going to be the message we're going to take away today. Because the Pharisees don't have that. And Jesus is going to be pretty bold with them. He's going to speak very strongly to them in their lives. You're going to see some really hard words here Jesus is going to say. I just pray, “God, please, you don't have to yell at me. Just whisper in my heart.” I want to listen to the whispers of God and not have to wait for the yelling or the intensity that sometimes God can have. I know He can have that. And I really want the whispers. “Lord, just guide me a little bit. I want to stay on track. I want to be like the car, you know. If I'm starting to weave out on the line, I want to be able to make the gentle turn. I don't have to make a major turn. Oh, that's what I need.” And the Pharisees are off base today.

So as we start in John 8:39-59, why don't you stand with me and let's read these first verses together. We're in the middle of a dialogue. They (the religious leaders) answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. You are doing the works your father did.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father—even God.” Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me.”

If we look at these verses and these words, what we see is that these people are relying on what?

What is the confidence that these Jews have? They make it the first statement that they're saying.

“Abraham is our father.” They're going to put their confidence in Abraham. They're going to do their heritage. And Jesus is going to say, “Wait a minute. You're misplacing your confidence. There's something much bigger here that you need in your lives.” He's going to say to them that “I am the one you need to put your confidence. I am from the Father.” That's what He's going to say. And there's this distinction made between them.