Growing Conflict With The Devil’s Sons Series

Jerusalem (Temple)

Lesson: Growing Conflict With the Devil’s Sons

John 8:21-59 (Isaiah 6:9)

Jesus was a Jew and He was in Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles; all males were required to attend this annual feast. He had gone to the temple to teach, but He was interrupted when a group, including the religious leaders, brought a woman to Him that was caught in the act of adultery. They ask Him what they should do to her, but pointed out that the Law stated that she should be stoned to death. The Savior knew these men, and He knew their sin. He wrote their sins in the dirt of the temple floor, until every man present left in shame and fear. Then, He said to the woman, “Go, and sin no more.”

After that, He declared to a group of Pharisees that he was the “Light of the World.” They called Him a liar, and said He only had His word for it and that wasn’t good enough. Jesus answered their accusation by declaring that His Father was One who could confirm what He said. They wanted to kill Him, but no one could lay a hand on Him, because “His hour had not yet come.”

(John 8:21-22) Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come. Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself? because he saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come.

The Jews are completely in the dark. They ask, “Will He kill Himself?” They know nothing about the fact that He is going to Jerusalem to die at the hands of the gentiles, and that He will be delivered up to die by these very same religious rulers, and that He will die a redemptive death for the sins of the world. Will He kill himself? No! He will give Himself a ransom for many.

(John 8:23) And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world.

We find this same thought in 1 Corinthians 2:14. Human knowledge can be understood by any other man who has a human nature—if his IQ is high enough. But divine knowledge is different. Only the Spirit of God can take the things of Christ and show them to us. That’s what He’s saying here.

(John 8:24) I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.

People die because they are sinners. That is the natural consequence of sin. “If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.” Can a person be saved on his deathbed? Yes, if he accepts the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior. But a person can reject Christ too long, just as these Jews did. There comes a time when one has rejected Christ too long and then will not ever want to accept him.

(John 8:25) Then said they unto him, Who art thou? And Jesus saith unto them, Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning.

These Jews did not know what His mission was, what His work was, nor did they know Him. “Where is thy Father?” “Will He kill Himself?” “Who art thou?” Jesus answers that His statement concerning Himself is always the same. He consistently claims that He is the Messiah, the Savior of the world.

(John 8:26) I have many things to say and to judge of you: but he that sent me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him.

Our Lord always maintained that what He was doing and saying was what the Father wanted him to do and to say. He claimed that God the Father had sent Him and that He was doing the father’s will. He never appealed to his own mind or His own intellect. This should be an example for those who are preachers. It is God’s word that they are to be giving out, rather than messages that are the product of their own intellect.

(John 8:27) They understood not that he spake to them of the Father.

They missed the whole point. They are of the earth; they do not understand heavenly things.

(John 8:28) Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.

When Jesus calls himself the Son of Man, He is referring to Daniel 7:13-14. The Son of Man comes to the Ancient of Days to be made ruler of the universe. So the Lord Jesus is referring here to his crucifixion and also to His crowning, which is yet to come.