Who’s Your Daddy? (John Part 26)
Text: John 8:31-59
We’re going to finish up John chapter 8 today, and next Sunday we’ll be taking communion, so we’ll be taking a break from John in order to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. So let’s go ahead and open our Bibles up to John chapter 8, and while you’re turning there, let me just re-cap what we’ve seen that’s led up to our text this morning.
In chapter 5 Jesus healed a man who had been lame for 38 years, but He did this on the Sabbath and that gave the Pharisees an excuse to attack Him. Now remember; the Pharisees didn’t like Jesus because He had exposed their false theology, and because He was riling up the crowds, and that scared them because they had a good thing going, and they didn’t want Jesus to rock the boat and upset their comfortable racket…
Then in chapter 6 Jesus fed the multitudes with a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish, then He walked on water and calmed a storm, and then He taught that He is the True Bread from heaven, who had been sent by God the Father. He called the Judeans to true faith, and to stop seeking the temporary pleasures of this world, but rather to take up their cross and follow Him… and of course they walked away from Him. They didn’t want a Messiah who was calling them to repentance from sin, and who was calling them to self-sacrifice. So they rejected Him. Chapter 7 was where Jesus went up to the Feast of Booths, and proclaimed to the crowds that He is the Living Water… basically He said to them that He Himself, is the very same God who delivered Israel out of Egypt, and that fed, watered, protected, and guided the people of Israel during the Exodus wanderings. He closed that up by saying He’s the Light of the World, and that true faith – saving faith, is a following faith… and the result of saving faith is to abide (or live) in His Word, and when you do that, you’ll know the truth and be set free by it.
And that brings us to our text this morning (READ John 8:31-59).
Now remember; verse 31 says that these Jews “believed”… and we talked about that as well… how there’s a false faith… a sort of mental assent, but it’s not true faith. They believe certain aspects about Jesus, they mentally agree with some of what He’s saying, but they haven’t trusted in Him as their Lord and Savior. And so He tells them, “If you truly believe, guess what? You’re going to abide in My Word, and be set free by it.” And they immediately they take offense at this, and go on the defensive. In other words, they get offended by Jesus saying – they’re not actually free. And in trying to defend their position, they actually deny their own history.
They say, “We’ve never been enslaved by anyone.” Uhm… REALLY? We just finished celebrating the Feast of Booths… a festival that commemorated the provision of God during the Exodus… And of course the Exodus was an exodus from Egypt – WHERE YOU HAD BEEN SLAVES FOR 400 YEARS! The people of Israel had been enslaved multiple times. To Egypt, to the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks under Alexander the Great, and at the current time, they were under Roman rule. Their money has the image of Caesar on it. Roman soldiers are walking down their streets as an occupying army. But they’re offended at Jesus saying that they don’t know the truth.
WHY? Well think about it. If you don’t have the truth, that means your worship of God is a false worship, and your faith in God is a false faith. And that’s exactly what Jesus was saying to them.
Their claim to God was their ancestral relationship with Abraham. But Jesus is saying to them, that doesn’t make you right with God, or a child of God.
And I love how the Apostle Paul addresses this later on in the Book of Romans… It’s in Romans 9:6 where he says, “For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.” In other words, just being a Jew doesn’t make you part of the Israel of God (People of God). In the book of Galatians, he makes it even more clear. Galatians 3:7 “It is THOSE OF FAITH who are the sons of Abraham.”, and then jump down to verse 29 (Galatians 3:29), “If you are Christ’s THEN you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.”
So it doesn’t matter who your mom and dad are… YOU need to know Jesus!
Don’t get me wrong here… it’s a wonderful thing to have Christian parents, and Christian grandparents… and if you do, you are blessed and fortunate… but ultimately; their faith isn’t going to save you. You yourself have to have a personal relationship with Christ. You yourself have to have true, saving faith. You yourself have to trust in Jesus, and known Him as your Lord and Savior.
So they fire back at Jesus and say, “We’re the offspring of Abraham!” And instead of immediately answering their claim, Jesus explains to them the nature and power of spiritual bondage and the source of true freedom… And… just as a side note; I love how Jesus does that. Throughout the Scriptures, He never is drawn into a discussion or debate where He isn’t in command of the dialogue. He exemplifies Proverbs 26:4… He never answers a fool according to their folly. Instead; look at what He says, (READ John 8:34-36).
The unbeliever sins, and sins, and sins, and is not willing, nor able to repent. They will occasionally make resolutions, but deep down inside, they have no intention of quitting what they’re doing. I mean… before I was a Christian, I was right there in that. We’d go out, and get slobbering drunk… puking drunk… the next morning, you’re sick, you’re hung-over, and you say, “Oh man… I’m going to quit drinking.” But by the time next weekend rolled around, what were you doing? Getting hammered again. WHY? Because the power of sin is in the love of sin. Men love darkness rather than light, so they won’t come to the light.
Now the believer can also sin… don’t ever think that in this life, we’ll reach some form of sinless perfection. We don’t. But the difference is – the believer is convicted by his sin. He hates that he sinned (not just the consequences of his sin, but the sin itself), and he ultimately repents… As believers we are making progress towards a sanctified life. Sometimes it’s slow and painful, but we’re moving toward it. And our attitude toward sin has changed. We now, hate not only the consequences of our sin, but the sin itself.
So Jesus tells them, “If you practice sin (in other words, if you live a lifestyle of ongoing, unrepentant sin), then you’re a slave to sin… and guess what? A slave doesn’t remain in the house forever.” Now catch this… Jesus is saying, “You might – at this time, be experiencing some of the benefits… some of the residual blessings, that your believing ancestor Abraham was given, but eventually it’s all going away. It’s not yours, it’s residual.” And that was true. About 40 years after Jesus says this, the city of Jerusalem is going to be sacked by the Roman Empire. The temple is going to be totally destroyed. Makes you wonder about our own nation right?
So basically Jesus is saying to them, “You’re not a son of Abraham, you’re a slave to sin.” And of course, they don’t like that.
Now in verse 37 Jesus say’s “I know you’re the offspring of Abraham…” You’re physically descended from Abraham, but not spiritually. If they were the spiritual children of Abraham, they would believe like Abraham did. You see; the Bible tells us that Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Abraham had faith… He had faith in God… and He had faith in the promised Savior. Abraham looked forward to Jesus, whereas we look back. But he had faith. That’s what Hebrews 11 is all about. How all of the Old Testament saints had faith in Christ… they believed in the promised Savior. And this is what Jesus is saying… He’s saying, “Abraham believed in Me… and if you were really the children of Abraham, you would believe too.” But then He goes on, and really gets em’… He says “You want to kill Me… You’re doing what your father does…” You’ve heard the saying, “Like Father Like Son”? Well that’s what Jesus is saying here. He’s saying, “You’re just like your father… and he was a murderer from the beginning… Your father is the devil.”
Turn with me back to Genesis 3:14-15 (READ).
Now did you catch what God told Satan there? He said, “I’m going to put enmity between you and the woman, and between YOUR OFFSPRING, and her Offspring.” Of course; her Offspring is Jesus… and Satan’s is the world. And that’s exactly what we’re seeing in our text here.
Do not ever think that the world is neutral about Jesus!
The world, the world system… that means movies, TV, music, entertainment, ideas, philosophies, education, world views, ALL OF IT are hostile towards Christ. It’s either openly hostile, or subtly hostile. That’s why John tells us in 1 John 2:15, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
And really what it comes down to is this… These guys want to kill Jesus… the reason they want to kill Jesus is because their father is the devil. Their passions and desires, show their spiritual descent. You’ve heard me say this more than once in this series on John: A true faith is a following faith… True faith is displayed by our desires, our lives… well false faith is also displayed by our desires and our lives. Jesus said it like this in Luke 6:44 “A tree is known by its fruit.”
So… back up in verse 31, where it says Jesus spoke to the Jews who had believed… we’re now seeing that they only superficially believed. It wasn’t real, true, saving faith. And why didn’t they believe? Well verse 47 tells us, “Whoever is of God hears the Words of God. The reason you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”
Now look at verse 48 (READ).
Basically they’ve been cornered by the truth. Jesus has spoken the truth, He has shown them the truth, and He is the truth… and what do they do? They blaspheme the Holy Spirit. Well… first they use a racial slur, and then they blaspheme the Holy Spirit. They say, “You’re a Samaritan.” The Jews hated the Samaritans… they looked at them like they were sub-human… inferior, scum of the earth. So when they call Jesus a Samaritan, that’s a racial insult. And they’re trying to insult Him. They’re trying to say the most hateful thing they can think of. And in their minds, they think Jesus has just done that to them… He’s just told them that their father is the devil… so they want to come back with something just as bad… So they say He’s a Samaritan… and then; They blaspheme the Holy Spirit by saying, “You have a demon.”
If you go to Matthew chapter 12, or Mark chapter 3, you’ll see the scribes and Pharisees do this… And I feel like I need to explain this so that there’s no confusion. In all of these instances… in Matthew, Mark, and here in John, you see people attribute the power and works of the Holy Spirit to Satan. But what makes it unforgivable is the knowledgeable and willfully rebellious mind-set behind it. It is TOTALLY ridiculous for them to make this claim! They know good and well that the things that Jesus has been doing, are from God. They know what He’s been teaching is true. But they hate Him so much, they harden their hearts against Him, and that’s what leads them to make this accusation. That’s what blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is… it’s a heart that has hardened itself so much against Jesus… that’s totally rejected Jesus… that’s totally rejected the repeated truths of Scripture, and the repeated calls to repent and trust in Him.
Their hearts are so hardened, that when Jesus makes it as clear as possible and says, “Before Abraham was – I AM.” They don’t fall on their faces and worship Him. They pick up stones and try to kill Him. Jesus has been saying it all along. “I AM the Bread of Life” – meaning, I’m the God who fed the people in the wilderness wanderings. “I AM the Living Water” – meaning, I’m the God who gave them water out of the rock. “I AM the Light of the World” – meaning, I’m the God who led the people and directed the people, and protected the people in the wilderness. I AM the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and Jacob… I AM the God who called Moses from the burning bush. I AM the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End.
And He is still that today, and He is still calling us to follow Him, and not walk in darkness, and to give up our love for the world and the things of the world… and to follow HIM, and be His disciple.
CLOSING
