Sermons – Grace Evangelical Free Church // Wyoming, MN

John 8:48-59 The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” 49 Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. 50 Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. 51 Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” 52 The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ 53 Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?” 54 Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ 55 But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” 57 So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” 58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” 59 So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

Once again, all of John 7 and 8 is set in Jerusalem during the Jewish Feast of Booths. This particular Feast took place around six months before the Passover Feast at which Jesus would be crucified. Almost the entire section describes different interactions between Jesus and various groups of Jews and Jewish leaders. The exchanges all followed a familiar pattern: (1) Jesus appeared in public, (2) Some truth-claim was put forward (either by Jesus or one of the Jews), (3) A debate took place between Jesus and the Jews over the truth-claim, and (4) Jesus explained the consequences of the Jews/Jewish leaders’ hardness of heart. More than once, John records that some who heard Jesus came to believe Jesus. Unfortunately, however, John also indicates that their belief was mostly misguided and insincere.

In this last section of that longer passage, we find that the pattern holds. Jesus was in public, several truth-claims were offered, debates ensued, and Jesus pronounced judgment on His unbelieving audience.

Within that pattern, there is one main claim made by Jesus, three subsequent claims that flow from it, and a single response from the Jews. The main claim is that Jesus is God. The three subsequent claims that flow out of that are that (1) there is no immorality in Jesus, (2) the Father and Son conspire for one another’s glory, and (3) eternal life comes from keeping Jesus’ word. And the single response from the Jews was complete rejection. This morning we’ll look at the main point (that Jesus is God) and then we’ll get to the rest next Sunday.

Some of what we cover today will be familiar to many and some will be newer. New or old, however, combined it all helps us see the glory of Jesus in its highest and clearest form since John’s introduction. Jesus is God, the eternal, perfect, second person of the Holy Trinity. Our main takeaway, then, is awe, wonder, marvel, and worship. Let’s pray that God would grant us all eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to love these things.

If you were paying attention when Heather read our passage, you’ll quickly notice that I’m beginning with the end. In fact, as I mentioned before I prayed, we won’t get to the beginning until next Sunday. The main reason I’ve chosen to go out of order like this is because everything else Jesus said in the first ten verses is rooted entirely in the one main claim He made in the second to last verse.

As I work through Jesus’ main claim, then, that He is God, I’d like to invite you to consider something that I’ll come back to several times throughout the sermon: Everything, everything, everything hinges on whether or not that’s true. Every other claim Jesus makes in this passage hinges on it. But more significantly, everything from every corner of creation hinges on it as well. If Jesus is God, there is no aspect of reality untouched by that truth. And in the same way, if He is not God, that too has implications for every part of our existence. In other words, the claim we’re about to consider presents every one of us with the most important, all-encompassing question we’ll ever encounter: In claiming to be God, was Jesus telling the truth or not? How’s that for a wakeup call?

With that, to help us best appreciate the meaning and magnitude of Jesus’ claim, let’s begin at the beginning of John’s Gospel and then go back up even further to the beginning of God’s covenant promise.

John 1:19 to the very end of the Gospel contains a narrative account of much of Jesus’ life and ministry. It begins with John the Baptist, who was sent by God to prepare the way for Jesus, and ends with the resurrected Jesus speaking to His followers just before ascending back into heaven.

The first eighteen verses of the Gospel are quite a bit different. They serve as John’s introduction. In it, John basically framed up (explained and interpreted) much of what he would cover in everything that followed. In particular, he used the introduction to explain who Jesus really was and what difference that makes.

To those ends, in his intro, John cut straight to the chase on the most important aspect of Jesus’ nature. In the very first verses of the very first chapter, John stated in no uncertain terms exactly what Jesus claimed for Himself in 8:58: that Jesus is eternal God in the flesh.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God.

To make sure no one missed the fact that he was referring to Jesus (the Word), in v.14 he was even more explicit.

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

What was immediately clear and explicit in John’s introduction, however, has been anything but (clear and explicit) to this point in the narrative portion of his Gospel. There are definite hints and suggestions. Knowing what we know, it’s not hard to recognize Jesus’ divinity in John 1:19-8:48. And yet, an important aspect of Jesus’ ministry was His gradual revelation of who He really was. That gradual revelation built and built, reaching a new and significant climax in our passage for this morning. In other words, what was clear to John by the time he wrote his introduction, and what is clear to us now (that Jesus is God), was not as clear to those experiencing Jesus’ ministry in real time…until the point in His ministry described here, that is.

With all of that, if you’re not already familiar with our passage or with the OT, you might be wondering what I’m talking about. Nowhere in John 8:48-59 did Jesus say the words, “I am God.” Why, then, am I claiming that Jesus clearly and explicitly did so? Understanding the answer to that question requires us to go way back in the OT, from Abraham to one of his offspring several generations later.

Back in Genesis 15 we read of the covenant promise that God made with Abraham, the one held onto so tightly by the Jews in Jesus’ day (especially those in our passage and throughout 7-8). In it, God promised to be Abraham’s God and to give him a land to possess. In Genesis 17, God expanded on His covenant promises to Abraham. There, in addition to the land, God also promised to make Abraham into a “father of a multitude of nations.” God even went so far as to declare, “I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your offspring after you.” Again, that’s why the Jews kept insisting to Jesus that they were children of Abraham.

By God’s design, the covenant promise was carried on through Abraham’s son, Isaac; and then through Isaac’s son, Jacob. God changed Jacob’s name to Israel and blessed him with twelve sons. From these sons came the tribes of Israel. As you may know, God especially blessed Israel’s son, Joseph, to the point that he became the second most powerful man in Egypt. And because of that, Joseph’s father (Jacob/Israel) and the rest of his brothers eventually joined him in Egypt and in God’s abundant blessing there.

That brings us to the second book of the Bible, Exodus. In the very beginning of Exodus, we’re told that eventually Joseph, his father, and all his brothers died in Egypt. But it also tells us that “all the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly stung, so that the land was filled with them” (1:7). Within a few short generations, God’s covenant promises were starting to bear very visible fruit.

At that point, things take quite a turn. The next few verses in Exodus tell us that “There arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph,” that he was intimidated by Israel’s numbers, blessing, and might, and that he commanded his people, therefore, to “deal shrewdly with them” (1:8-10). The result was an ever-increasing enslavement and oppression of Abraham’s burgeoning offspring. In a flash they went from prosperous and joyful to beaten down into severe subjugation.

After some time (of being enslaved), God raised up another of Abraham’s offspring, a man named Moses, to free His people in keeping with His covenant promise. After miraculously preserving Moses’ life as a baby, and miraculously allowing Moses to be raised by the daughter of the king of Egypt, when Moses was older, God miraculously appeared to him in the form of a burning bush. Insodoing, God revealed His most holy name for the first time.

After explaining to Moses what He intended to do (free His people) and Moses’ role in it (use his influence with Pharaoh and lead the people out of Egypt), God had this brief exchange with Moses.

Exodus 3:13-14 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.'”

“I AM” is a translation of the Hebrew word, “Yahweh”. Never before had God revealed this name to any man, not even to Abraham. It came to be so revered by the Jews that they wouldn’t even write out all the letters. If you’ve spent any time in the OT, you know that God has many names, but Yahweh is His most holy name.

More than a fun history lesson or a bit of trivia knowledge, all of that is necessary for us to truly make sense of and appreciate Jesus’ shocking words in John 8:58. After a bit more round and round with the Jews concerning the nature of their relationship with Abraham (in John 8:48-55),

58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”

Even with the background I just shared with you, that probably doesn’t shock us like it should. To Jesus’ hearers, however, to those steeped in generations of reverence for this name of God, it hit like a ton of bricks (as is evidenced by their response recorded in the final verse). We saw in vs.24 and 28 that Jesus hinted at this, likely claiming Isaiah 43:13 (“I am he”). Here, though, Jesus took what was implicit and made it explicit and added to Isaiah 43, Exodus 3 (“I AM”)! That is, in John 8:58 Jesus took for Himself God’s most holy name. Jesus of Nazareth claimed to be the same God who appeared to Moses in a burning bush 1300 years earlier, the God of the covenant promise that shaped their entire lives, the God of whom the Jews said “He is our God” (54).

So what are we to make of this?! It is truly the most staggering claim of all time. Most of us have become so used to hearing that Jesus is God, that we miss how staggering it really is. To even begin to get our heads around this we need to take the things I’ve already shared with you and then use them to put ourselves into the shoes of those listening to Jesus speak in this passage.

Picture it… some guy comes to Minnesota. He starts teaching things about Christianity that don’t sound quite right, or at least it’s not immediately obvious what he’s talking about. Some aspects of his life seem to line up in strange ways with the Bible and there are rumors swirling concerning his ability to do things no one else has ever done. At the same time, though, little of what he says and does fits into any normal understanding of Christianity.

After a couple years of this taking place all around the area, you find yourself hearing him speak in person. He shows up at our farmer’s market and starts talking loud enough for everyone to hear him. For the most part, he starts off saying the same kinds of unusual things he’s known for, but then takes it to another level. He’d claimed certain prophecies for himself, reinterpreted Bible passages in ways you’ve never heard, and repeatedly challenged just about every aspect of the authority of those in power, but then…then, he has the audacity to take his audacity to an entirely new level. He clearly and emphatically claims to be God; not to be merely from God or godly or on God’s mission, but to actually be God.

This man—who looks like every other man, who is less educated and has less money than many, who has almost nothing notable about him other than his provocative teaching, unusual boldness, and possibly some exceptional acts—publically declares himself to be the God who made the heavens and earth.

As others have pointed out, that claim is so shocking that it immediately removes all but three possibilities. No longer can he be considered a mere revolutionary, or trouble maker, or teacher, or man of God. None of those kinds of people claim to actually be God. That claim means that he is either a liar of the most heinous kind (knowing full well that he is not who he claims, but calling in people to give their lives to it anyway), he’s a lunatic of the most pitiable kind (he wrongly, but genuinely believes himself to be God), or he is who he said he is.

That’s in essence exactly what the Jews in John 8:48-59 were faced with, and their response proves it. They immediately recognized the magnitude of Jesus’ claim and decided quickly that rather than a lunatic, and certainly rather than God, Jesus was a liar. Therefore, according to v.59, … they picked up stones to throw at him…

The God-prescribed penalty for blasphemy, which this certainly was if it was not true, was throwing stones at the person until they died (Leviticus 24:14). Therefore, (rightly) certain that Jesus claimed to be God and (wrongly) certain He wasn’t, Jesus’ hearers were (again wrongly) certain that they needed to execute Jesus if they were to honor God’s decree.

Again, Grace, what are we to do with this? Before anything else, we must decide for ourselves if Jesus was a liar, a lunatic, or God. If He is a liar or lunatic, the Jews were right and we should join them. If He is God, though, AND HE IS, it changes and effects everything.

Grace Church, please hear me when I tell you that all of this means there is no corner of the universe, no thought, no feeling, no relationship, no purchase, no moment, no orientation, no anything over which Jesus is not God. Because of that, Jesus could make the claims He made and call people to the things He called them to. At the same time, it was because they rejected that larger claim, that the Jews couldn’t possibly believe Jesus on the smaller ones. And in that we get a small glimpse of the difference between a life lived in genuine faith in Jesus and every other life.

In conclusion, then, my challenge to you all is to ask the Holy Spirit to help you decide once and for all whether or not to hang everything on that central claim. As we’ve seen, the only real options are to reject it outright and everything that goes with it or accept it fully and obey all that Jesus commands. What is not an option is that which so many in our culture have chosen…to dabble in some watered-down, domesticated, counterfeit version of Christianity that has large chunks of reality untouched by Jesus. May God’s grace wash over us this morning, opening our eyes to behold this wonderful, eternal-life-changing truth: Jesus is God!

John 8:31-47 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”

34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. 38 I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”

39 They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, 40 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. 41 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.” 42 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. 43 Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. 46 Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? 47 Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”

Our vacation was fast-paced, but good. Big fish, big families, lots of miles. It was good to go and it’s good to be back. Thanks to Mike and John for filling in, in various ways while I was out. It was encouraging to listen to John’s sermon and consider the parallels he was able to draw between his passage in Exodus and John 8. As you’ll soon notice, those parallels will continue this morning.

Let’s pray.

Genesis 1 and 2 record God’s very good creation and ordering of the universe. By Genesis 3, however, as John mentioned last week, mankind had already rejected God as God and His ordering. The result, as God promised it would be, was curse and death. Therefore, God said to the serpent who’d tempted Adam and Eve to sin,

Genesis 3:15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

Embedded in this single verse are what’s been called “the first gospel” and the promise of a great war between the offspring of the serpent and the offspring of the woman. The “first gospel” is the promise that one of Eve’s offspring would eventually, fatally stomp on the head of the serpent, even at great cost to Himself. This was fulfilled at the cross of Jesus. And the great war has been raging ever since those words were spoken by God in the garden. The victory of the woman’s offspring, Jesus, was decisively won at the cross, but the battle has continued and will continue until Jesus returns.

One of the keys to understanding the OT specifically, and the Bible generally, is in recognizing that in large measure, the point of the Bible is to follow and describe both of those things; the line of the serpent-stomper from Eve to Jesus, and the nature and state of the war between their offspring. In other words, the Bible is a history of the line of the promised serpent-crusher and the battle between His people and His enemies.

And along those lines, one of the keys to understanding our passage for this morning is in recognizing that both of those things are at its heart. By Genesis 12 we find out that of all the people on earth, the serpent-stomper would come from the line of a man named Abraham. In other words, out of all of Eve’s offspring, God chose Abraham’s family to be His special people. They would be His special people in that God would reveal Himself to them in special ways for the good of the world, and in that the promised Deliverer would one day come from a descendent of Abraham. That’s why so much of our text centers around a discussion on the children of Abraham (the Jews); because God promised that his offspring would be on the winning side of the war, because one of Abraham’s offspring would lead the rest to victory over the serpent’s army.

What we have in our passage for this morning, then, is a glimpse of this battle. The seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent squared off. Given what I’ve just shared with you, the facts that the battle continued and that the Jews were a part of it should not surprise us. What is surprising, and even shocking, is that the Promised Deliverer had finally come and that the battle the battle lines weren’t what any of the Jews thought they would be.

In these few verses, Jesus described in plain language the marks of those on the side of the Promised Redeemer (Him) and those on the side of the soon-to-be-defeated serpent. He also sorted those present into their respective camps in ways they never expected. The main takeaway for us is to consider the marks, consider which side they indicate we’re on, and all in order that we might change our allegiance to Jesus or grow in our allegiance to Him.

To those ends, from a high level, I’ll walk us through each of the contrasts described in this passage (between those aligned with the seed of the woman and those aligned with the seed of the serpent). We’ll then take a closer look at three of the key distinctions—what they hear/understand, what they love, and what they do.

Before we look at the contrasts Jesus provided in these verses, I need to make sure we’re all on the same page on a couple of things. While the ultimate battle is between the seed of the woman (Jesus) and the seed of the serpent (the devil), the entire world—every single person on it—is aligned with one or the other. Every one of us represents either the woman or the snake. There are no neutral parties.

What’s more, not only are we aligned with one or the other, we are all, always (whether we know it or not) participants in the war—for goodness or evil, for light or darkness, for truth or lies, for life or death, for righteousness or sin. Again, a big part of what Jesus did here was to clearly define the marks of those on each side and make sure everyone who heard Him knew which side they were on and fighting for.

Those things set us up well to listen to and consider carefully the true marks of each side, in order that we might prayerfully consider our own hearts. What is it, then, that distinguishes the true children of Abraham from the imposters who, unknowingly, were on the side of the serpent? Consider with me, these twelve contrasting marks.

1. The children of Abraham abide in Jesus’ word, while Jesus’ words find no place in the lives of the children of the devil (vs.31, 37).
2. Likewise, the children of Abraham abide in Jesus word, while the children of the devil abide in the words of men (vs.31, 38).
3. The children of Abraham know the truth, but the children of the devil know only lies (vs.32).
4. The children of Abraham have been freed, while the children of the devil remain enslaved to sin (vs.32-34).
5. The children of Abraham remain in the house of God forever, but the children of the devil will be forced to leave (v.35).
6. The children of Abraham listen to, believe, and follow Jesus, while the children of the devil seek to kill Him (vs.37, 44).
7. The children of Abraham do what Abraham did, while the children of the devil do what the devil does (vs.39-41).
8. The children of Abraham love Jesus, and the children of the devil want to kill Him (vs.40-42).
9. The children of Abraham know that Jesus was sent by and speaks for the Father, while the children of the devil remain blinded to these truths (v.42).
10. Likewise, the children of Abraham hear the words of God, while the children of the devil do not (v.47).
11. The children of Abraham understand Jesus’ words and speak trut, but the children of the devil are confused and speak only lies (vs.43-44).
12. And the children of Abraham acknowledge the righteousness of Jesus, while the children of the devil accuse Jesus of sin (v.46).

Again, the two main things I wanted to help you see with this high-level overview are the simple facts that (1) there was a good deal of confusion concerning what it meant to be a child of Abraham among those Jesus addressed, and (2) the contrast between the true children of Abraham and the children of the devil couldn’t be any starker.

Having considered this from up high, then, I’d like to dive down and look more closely at the three key categories the contrasts fall into. In other words, when we combine all that Jesus said, we see that three things in particular define the distinction between the children of Abraham and the children of the devil: 1) What they hear/understand, 2) What they love, and 3) What they do.

The first of the three main distinctions Jesus made between the true children of Abraham (God, Eve) and the children of the devil (the serpent) is in what they hear and understand. The two different sets of offspring listen to and understand two completely different voices.

This shows up first (and perhaps clearest) in vs.31-32. Since I preached on vs.31-36 two weeks ago, I’ll only briefly touch on it.

31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

The main idea here is that children of Abraham abide (remain, continue, stay, reside) in Jesus’ word. When Jesus speaks, the true children of Abraham listen and understand. Abraham’s children are marked by an eagerness to hear Jesus teach and clarity when He does. The implication (which will become explicit soon) is that the opposite is true for the children of the devil. Jesus word is an awkward and unpleasant sound (like country music) for those who do not belong to God. It is confusing and distracting. It is angering and annoying. This is a sharp contrast indeed.

We see this same idea in vs.37-38. The children of Abraham and the children of the devil hear/understand things very differently.

37 I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. 38 I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”

The first thing to grasp here is that the word Jesus used here (“offspring”) is different than the word He used in v.39 (“children”). Far from a contradiction, then, Jesus was making an important distinction. It is one thing to be of the physical lineage of Abraham (“of his seed” or “his offspring”) and another to be his true child. Jesus acknowledged that His audience was certainly comprised of the former, but few were of the later.

The next thing to see is more explicit in the text. Largely because of what we saw in 31-32, and in tragically certain terms, not only do the children of the devil not want to hear Jesus’ word, and not only does it make little/no sense to them, and not only does it anger them, but it truly “finds no place in” them. There is no place for them to put Jesus’ actual teaching in their thinking. It’s like a square circle or the smell of seven for us. For the children of the devil, Jesus’ words simply find no purchase in their minds or hearts.

This was my exact experience for the first 18 years of my life. The words of Jesus were around me on a regular basis, but none of them made any sense at all to me. I had some level of intellectual comprehension, but it was like there was some sort of impenetrable wall around my brain that kept me from being able to actually understand.

This is one of the most devastating critiques imaginable. If Jesus word is the one and only true source of life, goodness, beauty, and salvation, it’s one kind of tragedy to be marked by ignorance of Jesus’ word, another to be marked by confusion by it, and another still to be marked by rejection of it. Those are all tragic in their own ways. But far more tragic still is the idea that the words of life simply cannot exist in the children of the evil one, that they have no place, that they cannot fit, that they are entirely incompatible.

For that reason, Jesus concluded, “43 Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word.” Saying, “you cannot bear to hear my word” is the same as saying that His word had not place in them. And, therefore, whenever Jesus spoke, the children of the devil (the serpent) could not understand.

In more explicit terms still, Jesus named what He’d previously implied, “44 You are of your father the devil” and among his chief characteristics is the fact that “[he] does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” Again, then, the children of the serpent, the children of the devil, those who are mere physical descendants of Abraham, listen only to their father, the devil, and therein hear only lies and deceit. How tragic is it that in this great war, the enemies of God give themselves to hearing only lies and that only lies make sense?

As if to put a giant exclamation mark in it, Jesus added, “45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.” Again, then, it is precisely because Jesus told the truth that the children of the serpent couldn’t believe. We need to be shocked that in spite of the fact that Jesus’ words came directly from the Father (the very Father the Jews claim to believe in and belong to), they were entirely foreign, and utterly frustrating to those whose father was the devil.

In the end, one of the great dividing lines between the children of the woman and the children of the serpent is the simple fact that “47 Whoever is of God hears the words of God.” And, therefore, one of the primary reasons Jesus’ words fell on deaf ears was that His hearers were “not of God.”

All of this forces us to ask ourselves what we are primarily listening to and what makes the most sense to us. If you were to take an inventory of everything you believe, how much of it are you able to trace straight back to the Bible? And how much of a biblical perspective shapes your beliefs? In other words, how much of what you believe comes from the Bible and how much of the Bible determines what you believe?

The second main category of distinction made by Jesus between the true children of Abraham and the children of the devil was their greatest love.

The most important, the greatest commandment of all was given to Abraham’s children in Deuteronomy 6:5.

5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

Just as they were certain they were Abraham’s children, there’s no doubt that Jesus’ hearers believed they loved God above all. There was scarcely a corner of their lives that didn’t contain some type of reminder of the millennia old stories and practices and beliefs of their ancestors. Stories, practices, and beliefs that were rooted in God’s choosing them to be His special people. They’d gained and given spectacularly by aligning themselves with God. Did they love Him? Of course!

But, “42 Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love me…’”

Jesus’ point was simple. Whatever claim His hearers might make to love God was entirely disproven by their rejection of Him. Whether they didn’t love God at all, mistakenly loved something they’d mislabeled as God, only loved the idea of God, or loved nothing more than some small aspect of God, the fact that they rejected Jesus proved that they lacked any genuine Deuteronomy 6:5 love.

Jesus not only stated this. He also explained it. “42 …for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me.” In other words, Jesus said, if your love for God was real—if it was real love and God you really loved—you would recognize Him in Me and rejoice that He sent Me. God sent me to bless you. I’ve come to reveal more of the Father to you, to reveal more of His will, and to give my life as a ransom for your sins according to His design. Instead of loving Me for it, though, you are filled with hatred.

We see this fairly often today, don’t we, Grace? All around us people (including us) create something in their minds, call it “God,” and believe they believe in God. Some conjure a “god” to hate, but many one to admire and love. You certainly don’t need to have advanced degrees in the Bible to know and love God, but you do need to know true things about God. And the center of what it means to know and love God is to receive Jesus as God in the flesh, the Lord and Savior of the world. You cannot have God, much less love God, if you do not have Jesus.

And so, again, that genuine love for Jesus is a key mark for the true children of God, calls us to consider our highest love. What is it that you love most? What is it that you most desire? What is it that you’ve primarily given yourself to? Where it is Jesus in increasing measure, this passage helps us to see that we are true children of the promise, on the side of the offspring of Eve and on the side of God’s light, life, and victory.

The third and final category that we’ll consider is that of doing. The children of Abraham and the children of the devil hear, understand, love, and, therefore, do different things. In these few verses, Jesus mainly focused on what the children of the devil do. It probably goes without saying that the children of Abraham are marked by not doing these things.

As we saw the last time we were in John (8:34), the children of the devil do, practice, and obey sin. “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.” In our passage today, Jesus expanded on the nature and kinds of sin His hearers were engaged in.

And to that end, Jesus came out swinging. Rather than start with smaller sins, in v.37 He said, “I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you.” The children of the devil do murder. To make sure this wasn’t misunderstood, and to expand on it, in v.44 Jesus said, they were children of the devil who “was a murderer from the beginning.” The children of the devil murder because that’s what the devil has done from the beginning. He killed Adam and Eve spiritually in leading them into temptation. And then within a few years, he led one of their sons (Cain) to commit the first physical murder against his own brother (Able). In addition to their murderous hearts (1 John 3:15), surely some of the people present in this passage were among those in the crowds who participated in Jesus’ murder just six months later.

More than that, though, Jesus told his audience, that their every desire, and therefore, their every action, came from their father, the devil. “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires.” Although they believed themselves to want the things of God, their desires were the devil’s desires. And, therefore, although they believed themselves to be doing the works of God, their actions were the devil’s actions. Jesus explained that was why they sought to kill Him (v.40), because they were “doing the works your father did” (v.41). In a neat summary, Jesus said, “38 I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”

Positively, Jesus taught that the true children of Abraham do “the works Abraham did” (39). Above all, Abraham did the work of believing in God. And that, not obedience to the law, was what God counted as righteous (Romans 4:3). To be a true child of Abraham, then, is, above all, to do the work of believing God in everything, and especially that He sent Jesus to be an example, teach truth, die in our place, and rule the world in glory.

The main point of all of this is, in large measure, the simple fact that not all of Abraham’s physical descendents are among his true children. It is Jesus’ teaching in passages like this one that led the Apostle Paul to write,

Romans 2:28-29 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. 29 But a Jew is one inwardly…

The lines were drawn in places very different than the Jews imagined. And the sides were sorted in ways very different than the Jews imagined. We ought, therefore, to carefully consider these things in our own lives. It is a high priority of John to help his readers to do just that as he recorded story after story of those who didn’t.

It seems good to conclude with something we all ought to be asking yet again. How do we come to the place where we are marked by hearing, loving, and doing the things Jesus calls us to in this passage? How do we get from Jesus’ word having no place in us to longing to hear it and being transformed by our understanding of it? How do we move from being enemies of God to loving Him with all we have? And how do we move from doing the works of the devil to doing works of righteousness prepared for us by God?

Jesus does not give us the answer in this passage, but it’s a good time to remind us of what He’s already said. In order for this transformation to happen in us, in order for us not to remain like those standing in front of Jesus confused, angry, hateful, and rebellious…

3:3 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

6:37 “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”

6:44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.”

6:45 “Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.”

6:63 “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.”

6:65 “I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

The simple fact is that the ability to hear, understand, love, and obey Jesus is a gift from God. Since we are all born dead in sin, and since one mark of sin-death is spiritual blindness, we need God to open our eyes for us to behold the wonderful things of God in Jesus Christ. Let’s take a moment to ask God to do and continue to do that in us today in the certain knowledge that He will for all who ask in faith.

Last Sunday, while preaching from John chapter eight, Pastor Dave helped us to see the freedom that Jesus, the Son of God, offers freely to all. This freedom is not a worldly kind of freedom but freedom from the slavery of sin. As Pastor Dave said last week, “True freedom isn’t the ability to make our own choice, unhindered by anything outside of us. True freedom, rather, is the God-given ability to rightly choose that which is best.” This is something the Jews that Jesus was teaching did not understand. They had failed to rightly reckon with their history as God’s covenant people. Without any self-awareness, they told Jesus, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free?’” (John 8:33)

Though they were ethnically part of the people of God, they were children of the devil, and instead covenanted with him (John 8:44). Jesus tells them that, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did…” (John 8:39) As much of the New Testament teaches, faith is not biological, it is not ethnic, it is spiritual. That is to say, those who love, obey, and follow Jesus Christ are children of Abraham, and as the prologue to John’s Gospel says so clearly, “to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:12)

I had planned to preach from Exodus 1 long ago, but this portion of John’s Gospel is a providentially good time to reflect upon the book of Exodus. The Jews of Jesus’s day had misunderstood their own history. They failed to understand the significance of their exodus from Egypt and what the Old Testament was about. They failed to see that all of creation, not to mention all men, were subjected to the curse because of the sin of their father Adam. “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope, that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” (Rom. 8:20-21) And as Jesus taught in John 8:34, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.”

As the saying goes, “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.” As adopted sons of God, we are to recognize that the history of Israel is our history and receive instruction from it. The lessons they learned are lessons we need to learn ourselves, lest we too, like the Jews of Jesus’s day, fail to see that apart from the freedom Christ has won for us, we too, would still be enslaved to sin.

God had made a covenant with Abraham, not because of anything he had done, but because God graciously chose him as the father of a multitude that would one day be a blessing to all nations. God promised to make Abraham “exceedingly fruitful” and to give his “offspring after [him] in the land of [his] sojournings.” (Genesis 17:5-8) To human eyes, this promise began small, with the birth of a single son, Isaac, in Abraham’s old age. Isaac seemed to be off to a better start than his father, having two sons, Esau and Jacob. But even then, the two brothers could scarcely live together, and Jacob fled his family when his brother Esau sought to kill him over the covenant blessing Jacob had sovereignly received, but through trickery.

But God continued to bless the seed of Abraham, even while in a foreign land. Jacob had twelve sons—a six-fold multiplication of his father’s two-fold blessing. God’s blessing was there, at least physically, for Abraham’s seed was multiplying. But at every turn, these sons fell into sin and were still nomadic, without a land of their own. They were often threatened by famine and war.

With Joseph, the eleventh son of Jacob, God’s covenant promises seemed to finally be bearing the kind of fruit that one might expect from the blessing of the Creator of the universe. His story begins well, with Joseph finding the favor of his father, but this led to the displeasure of his brothers, who at first want to kill him. But he is instead sold into slavery in Egypt, where after obediently persevering through great trials, he is exalted to the right hand of the most powerful man in the world of his time. Jacob brought his entire family into Egypt, protected from the famine that ravaged the whole region.

At the end of Genesis, Joseph prophesies to his people, “I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” And he added, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.” (Gen. 50:24-25)

At the end of Genesis, we see the beginning of God’s covenant promises being fulfilled. In Genesis 46:27, we’re told “All the persons of the house of Jacob who came into Egypt were seventy.” This number, seventy, is a highly symbolic number in the Bible. In Genesis 10, there are seventy nations named in what is often referred to as “the Table of Nations.”

The number seventy is symbolically connected with nationhood. It indicates that God is about to create a new nation out of this family of seventy. But they were far from being a nation of their own numerically or geographically, for they were sojourners in Egypt. But God’s covenant purposes were still being worked out—their sojourning in Egypt had not thwarted them; in fact, at the end of Genesis, we see that their sojourning in fact saved them. (Gen. 50:20)

That brings us to the book of Exodus, with the people of Israel still in Egypt. There are three main sections to this chapter. First, in verses 1-7 we see the people of Israel beginning to fulfill God’s creation mandate to take dominion—to “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it…” Second, in verses 8-14, there is a new king that opposes and enslaves Israel. And finally, in verses 15-22 we see the confrontation between the king of Egypt and two midwives.

Now let’s turn to our text this morning, the first chapter of Exodus. It begins with an introduction as a reminder of the humble origins of the people of Israel. For while the people of Israel were a vast multitude at this point, it had not always been so. In fact, it wasn’t that long ago that they were only numbered 70, when they had entered the land of Egypt. The number 70 is repeated again here, to foreshadow that God had promised to make Israel a nation, as 70 nations were named in Genesis 10.

The language of verse seven echoes the dominion mandate that God had given to Adam and Eve and again to Noah. In Genesis 1:28, “God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion…’” God later tells Noah something very similar: “And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.” (Gen. 9:7) And he promises these things to Abraham as well. The people of Israel were beginning to fulfill what God had commanded after he created them and what he had promised to Abraham.

Studying the chronology of Genesis and Exodus leads us to believe that the book of Exodus begins between 80 to 144 years after Joseph died1. The sons of Jacob had sons in Egypt, and their grandsons would have children of their own as well. A brief discussion of the chronology of the sojourn in Egypt is necessary, particularly at this point, because it is easy to misunderstand what Exodus 12:40 means when it says, “The time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years.”

The ESV translation, like most modern translations, is slightly misleading here. The King James version reads, “Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.” The difference between the two may seem slight, but the King James Version separates the length of time from the land where the people dwelt. This is important because, in Genesis 15:16, God told Abraham that his offspring would return to Canaan “in the fourth generation”—which is shown to be fulfilled in Exodus 6:16-20 and Numbers 3:17-19. Additionally, in Galatians 3:16-17, Paul states that “the law…came 430 years” after God made his promises to Abraham. This means the timer for 430 years began with God’s covenant with Abraham.

Israel sojourned for 430 years but was not enslaved under Pharaoh for all those years. They were “afflicted,” as Genesis 15:13 states, but not as Pharaoh’s slaves for all those years. Recall how Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were all consigned to sojourn in a foreign land, how famine and war threatened them. Jacob’s told Pharaoh in Genesis 47:9, “Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life…” The patriarchs had been afflicted, even amidst much blessing. The time of enslavement was approximately 215 years. Sorting out these details is important because we must be able to let Scripture interpret Scripture and not allow seeming contradictions to take root and undermine the doctrine of Scripture.

The math of these generations is fascinating. If each of these seventy persons had twelve children as Jacob had, on through the fifth generation, there would have been over 1.4 million descendants of Jacob! In Exodus 12:37, we’re told that more than 600,000 men left in the Exodus.

When the text tells us, “the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them,” it is not hyperbole—it is no exaggeration. It is not like the proverbial “fish tale,” where every time you tell the story, the fish gets a little bigger. This kind of blessing could only come through God’s covenant blessing.

This extraordinary population growth stood out to the Egyptians. It was this that made them fear the Israelites. Isn’t it interesting to consider how our culture today also fears large, fruitful families? Children are a blessing, and marital fruitfulness is something to desire and pursue. Yet it is perceived as a threat to the worldly order—and this should be a good lesson for us. Covenantal fruitfulness is one of the means God has ordained to take dominion over his created world. We should not be surprised when the world recognizes the threatening nature of God’s weapons. But notice, this is a weapon they are not interested in using themselves. Quite the opposite. To the world, death is the greatest of weapons. We see evidence of that in the response of the king of Egypt.

In addition to the seventy children of the twelve patriarchs, there would have likely been many servants and attendants that had traveled into Egypt with Jacob and his family. Abraham had 318 fighting men in Genesis 14. Jacob and his sons would have almost certainly had similar retinues with them.

Additionally, there were almost certainly converts and those that had married into the people of Israel. Joseph had married an Egyptian (Gen. 41:45). To leave Egypt with 600,000 adult men, Egyptian converts likely factored into the total as well. But the text doesn’t tell us these things because this was a work of God; we should be awed by God’s fulfillment of his promise by the incredible fruitfulness of the people of Israel in Egypt. God is not stingy and begrudging in fulfillment of his Word!

600,000 is mentioned, as I said in Exodus 12, but no number is given here in Exodus 1. Rather, the text emphasizes, “the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.” This is creational language—the people were fulfilling the creation mandate.

This connection to the creation of man sets the stage for a re-enactment of the scene in the garden, where the serpent sought to overthrow man, wherein the serpent, the woman, and the man were all cursed. And this is exactly what we see in Exodus.

This brings us to the second main section of chapter one. Immediately after the people of Israel begin to fulfill the dominion mandate through covenant blessing, they face satanic opposition. Remember the curse God put upon the serpent in Genesis 3? God said to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (Gen. 3:15) And to the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children.” And to the man he said, “…cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground…” (Gen. 3:17b-19a)

In Exodus chapter 1 we see the rise of the King of Egypt, playing the role of the offspring of the Serpent, subjugating men, and furthering the pain women suffer in childbirth by killing the offspring of the woman. God’s children are again bearing the curse, this time under the rule of the Seed of the Serpent. The Serpent has aspired to god-like authority and is waging war upon God by attacking his children.

This “new king” that “arose over Egypt… did not know Joseph.” As I said earlier, this is probably 80-144 years after Joseph died. Though he probably never met Joseph, he surely had heard stories of Joseph and was familiar with how he’d saved Egypt from famine and enriched the Pharaoh through it. What Moses seems to mean here is that the new king had no loyalty to Joseph’s memory, no honor for what Joseph had done. Instead, he saw the people of Israel as rivals—outsiders who would not remain loyal to Egypt in time of war.

The Israelites had originally settled in the land of Goshen, and the text points to their remaining together, forming a rival ethnic power within the nation of Egypt. This new king of Egypt recognized that the people of Israel had been greatly blessed. He saw with his eyes that they were “too many and too mighty.” But rather than inquire as to why and how they had been so blessed, rather than inquire of the people what could account for the blessing they were experiencing, he chose to view them as potential rivals.

Rather than see the potential for mutual blessing, he sought to harness and suppress that blessing for his own purposes. Something similar happened in Israelite history when Laban abused Jacob. Laban acknowledged that he had been blessed by the LORD because of his son-in-law Jacob. But rather than deal justly with him, like Pharaoh, he dealt shrewdly and tricked him many ways into staying under his service, rather than returning to Canaan with his own wealth. (Gen. 30:27, 35) God had set this example down for the enslaved Israelites to be encouraged and trust that God would vindicate them.

Moses’ account of their enslavement leaves some questions for the modern-day reader. How could this vast multitude, presumably living together in one region, be enslaved so easily by a nation fearing their size? In Psalm 105:24, we learn that “the LORD made his people very fruitful and made them stronger than their foes.” Did they resist this enslavement? Was the enslavement accomplished through the slow encroachment upon their liberties, as we say today—slowly boiling a frog?

The text is silent regarding these questions, though the memory of their enslavement would have surely been passed down through oral tradition. The point is that they were enslaved. The Egyptians “set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens.” (v. 11) Their enslavement was accomplished. “They built for Pharaoh store cities…” The seed of the Serpent was exercising his authority to enslave and subjugate the sons of God under the curse that God had pronounced upon them.

Yet, what the king of Egypt “meant evil against [them]… God meant it for good.” (Gen. 50:20) What we must recognize is that God was at work to build and enrich the people of Israel and prepare them for nationhood. He was using means—oppression, slavery, and tribulation to accomplish his purposes. This is not the formula that any of us would use for this goal, but God’s ways are not our ways. God was preparing his children for the responsibility of nationhood and independence while teaching them to trust his providence.

God is preparing us today for much more than nationhood and political independence. Paul asks in 1 Corinthians 6, “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!” (1 Cor. 6:2a, 3) God is calling us to a much more difficult and weighty calling. We have been entrusted with “all authority in heaven and on earth.” We are commanded to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to observe all Jesus has commanded. We are God’s plan to subdue his creation—empowered by the Spirit of God to do his kingdom work. We are the plan! We cannot be silent. We must speak God’s Word! We must proclaim the gospel of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. We are God’s witnesses to the world that he reigns and that all must bend their knees to King Jesus! We must not shy away from this command, or leave the task to missionaries in foreign countries. Our own nation, our own state, desperately needs the gospel.

Something remarkable happens through the Egyptian’s oppression of the Israelites—“the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad.” God was accomplishing his purposes through the oppression of his people. It was not in spite of the oppression but because of it.

We see this kind of response to oppression in the book of Acts. In Acts 6:7, we see “the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.” Immediately after this, Stephen becomes the first Christian martyr, launching “a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem” in Acts 8. The church responds by scattering and “preaching the word.” The disciples of Jesus then began their mission outside of Jerusalem, and the world has not been the same since, with the gospel going forth into all the world.

The Egyptians, who had enslaved the Israelites because of their fear of them, fell into greater fear as they multiplied all the more. They were then “in dread of the people of Israel.” But instead of recognizing that they’d made matters worse, they doubled down in the hardness of their hearts. “They ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives bitter with hard service.” Moses emphasizes this by adding, “In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.” Is this not a perfect picture of the nature of man? When the results of our sinful actions do not result in our desired outcome, rather than turning from our sin, we sin harder. When you are angry at those closest to you, how many of you make matters worse by losing your temper: shouting, scolding, or nagging rather than humbly seeking peaceful reconciliation?

In this final section of chapter one, we see the confrontation between the king of Egypt and two Hebrew midwives. This is an example of what God had said in Genesis 3, when he said that He would put enmity between the serpent and the woman, between his offspring and hers . The serpent-king is seeking to destroy the seed of the woman. This theme is throughout Scripture. Cain had allied himself with the Serpent by killing the godly seed—his brother Abel. God hated Esau, again, the seed of the Serpent, who had sought to kill his godly brother Jacob. This theme culminates with King Herod, who is explicitly connected with Egypt in Matthew 2:15. When Herod recognizes the political threat that Jesus would be to his own power, he sought to destroy Him and, later, the Pharisees whom Jesus calls sons of the devil (John 8:44), succeeded in crucifying Jesus.

The king of Egypt, as the serpent in the garden had done, approaches women to overthrow his enemy. The king of Egypt enlisted the Hebrew midwives into his murderous scheme to kill the sons of Israelite women. It is here that we find two unlikely heroes. Two Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, who “feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live.” They feared God more than the serpent-king who was seeking the destruction of God’s covenant people.

You may be thinking, why kill only the sons and not the daughters? Recall that the king’s primary fear mentioned in verse 10 concerns war. In his judgment, it is the sons that would be a military threat to Egypt. The king of Egypt feared the strength of Israelite men. And in a sense, he was right to fear the sons. Later in Exodus, we will see how Moses became that threat. But that isn’t really the point of this chapter. One commentator rightly notes the irony that Pharaoh is worried about the males, but it is the women that are the real threat2.

Unlike Eve, in the Garden of Eden, the two midwives rejected the word of the serpent-king because they feared God. They were not deceived by the serpent as Eve had been (1 Tim. 2:14), but rather they deceived the serpent!

When God cursed the serpent, he said that the seed of the woman would bruise his head, while the serpent would bruise the heel of the woman’s seed. This meant that the serpent would be defeated, while the seed of the woman would only be wounded. The serpent could not accomplish his desire to destroy the seed of the woman. He would battle in futility. God is the Creator, and this is his world. His purposes cannot be thwarted. He is the one who spoke into the darkness, “’Let there be light,’ and there was light.” (Gen 1:1) As John writes in his Gospel (1:5), “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” God rules this world; despite all that Satan does and will do, he will always be defeated.

Now this is not to say that the Israelites were not suffering. They absolutely were. They were “afflicted…with heavy burdens.” (Ex. 1:11) “They were oppressed.” (Ex. 1:12) They were forced to “work as slaves.” (Ex 1:13) “Their lives were [made] bitter with hard service…and in all kinds of work in the field.” They were treated “ruthlessly”. (Ex. 1:14) They were threatened with the murder of their sons (Ex. 1:16) This is a crucible of suffering—unrelenting suffering and fear all the days of their lives.

The king of Egypt did call the two midwives to account, having realized they’d not done what he had instructed them to do. The text does not give us a timeline here, but this is presumably a year or two later when the Israelites could not hide baby boys running around throughout the land of Goshen.

These two midwives, when challenged by Pharaoh, offer an answer that though Pharaoh accepted, seems a bit disingenuous—that is to say, not entirely sincere or entirely truthful. Much has been written of their answer to Pharaoh, as with Rahab’s deception of the king of Jericho, concerning the spies she protected. Again, in that story, a woman protects the godly seed from the serpent-king of Jericho.

Nowhere does the Bible condemn the midwives or Rahab for deceiving serpent-kings. Rather, both are commended for fearing the LORD. (Ex. 1:21, Heb. 11:31) And that is what we must focus upon. The two midwives feared God more than the earthly serpent-king who sought to murder the godly seed.

We, too, must fear the LORD more than any earthly authority. As Peter and the apostles said in Acts 5:29, “We must obey God rather than men.” This is not to say we should be casual about speaking the truth. Far from it! God hates “a lying tongue.” (Prov. 6:17) We are also commanded to “not bear false witness against [our] neighbor.” (Ex. 20:16) But it does mean that we must prioritize the fear of the LORD and not neglect “the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness.” (Mat. 23:23) I commend to you Micah 6:8, “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” Do that and, like the midwives, work to protect innocent life with a clear conscience.

God blesses the faithful midwives because they feared God and acted like it. In fact, he gave them the very thing that Pharaoh had sought to prevent—“he gave them families.” This word, translated as “families,” is much more than simply a husband, wife, and children. It is the same word translated elsewhere as “house.” In this way, “house” is meant to speak of a family lineage as the “house of Israel,” “house of Levi,” or “house of David.” It is genealogical, not merely an immediate family.

Family, a house—a legacy is one of God’s great gifts to men. He bestowed this great blessing on these two Hebrew midwives “because [they] feared God.” I encourage you to think this way because it is how God thinks. God promised to make a house for David, with the very Son of God being the fulfillment of that promise. Before God created the world, he prepared an inheritance that he one day bestowed upon his own Son. Not only this but there is a spiritual heritage that we can pass on as well, as God gives his Spirit and life not according to the flesh but according to His good pleasure. Paul addresses Timothy as “my true child in the faith” in 1 Timothy 1:2. And Deborah was called “a mother in Israel” in Judges (5:7)

I urge you to give thought to the legacy you will leave behind after your death. What will you leave behind? A legacy is not something we can build on our own or leave on our terms. The only good that will continue past our lives is that which receives God’s blessing. As we see from these midwives, it is the fear of God and walking in obedience before Him that will result in a godly legacy.

The obedient midwives not only received their own reward, but their obedience also spared many Israelite boys from death. “And the people multiplied and grew very strong.” (Ex. 1:21) Pharaoh’s edict then became ever more grotesque. He commanded, “all his people, ‘Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.”

The Egyptians were given legal license by their king to throw Hebrew boys into the river to drown. Rulers throughout history have sought to give legal sanction—legal protection to wickedness. In our own nation, we see this kind of thing everywhere. As abortion centers in neighboring states were closing due to legal restrictions after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, they moved their operations to Minnesota, where they may commit their vile acts of murder under the protection of law. Much evil was sanctioned and protected by our state government in this last legislative session.

In Psalm 94:20, God names rulers who “frame injustice by statute” as “wicked rulers.” As Christians, we must recognize this fact, for God says, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness…” (Is. 5:20) This does not change the fact that they are still our rulers, but we must call evil, evil. We must, like the midwives, fear God and not men.

This chapter concludes with this awful command from the serpent king. Most of us know well what is next. But the Israelites at the time did not have the fortune of knowing what would come. They had to walk by faith and not sight. They had to recognize how God was at work by blessing and multiplying the seed of Abraham, even in the face of powerful opposition. They had to recognize how God had protected and blessed the midwives for fearing God and not the king of Egypt. They had to remember the promises that God had made to Abraham. God had told him, “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Gen. 12:2-3) They had to look back to their family stories meant to remind them that God makes promises and keeps them.

We have far more today. We have the full Scriptures in which God has fulfilled all his promises. We see how Jesus, the Anointed Son of God, was born of a virgin, a child of the house of David, lived a sinless life, fulfilling all that Israel had failed to do, died upon a Roman cross at the insistence of his own religious leaders, rose from the grave on the third day, was witnessed by hundreds in his resurrection body, and then ascended to the right hand of the Father on high. He now sits at the right hand of God, where he awaits “that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.” (Heb. 10:13) Yet we, too, look back to our family stories meant to remind us that God makes promises and keeps them.

The seed of the serpent still wars against the seed of the woman. The offspring of the serpent seeks to groom us and our offspring into their own perverse idolatry, offering what they call freedom, but what God calls slavery. They seek the destruction of the godly seed, claiming God’s children for their own. We are in a spiritual war, as the children of God have always been and as the Israelites in Egypt were.

God’s call upon us is still the same today as it was then. Fear God and walk in his ways. Live by faith, knowing that one day we will walk by sight. The victory has already been won, for that is the meaning of the resurrection. God “has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30-31)

Grace Church, let’s be a people that remember God’s redemptive history, seeing our own place in it. We worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We have been grafted into their family tree. Their history is our history. The Jews of Jesus’s day, as we’ve been learning in the Gospel of John, were broken off the family tree because they had forgotten their own history and rejected the Son of God, who had come to offer freedom they believed they already possessed. (Rom. 11:17)

God is preparing a new people for more than nationhood by perfecting us by his love (1 John 4:12), sanctifying us by his Spirit (Rom. 15:16), instructing us in wisdom which “God decreed before the ages for our glory”(1 Cor. 2:7) that we may be “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” (Rev. 21:2) We are being prepared for immortality with the King of kings! (2 Cor. 5:4-5) So do not “faint in the day of adversity” but “Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.” (Proverbs 24:10)

May God hasten the day of his return, but until then, may he preserve his saints, and His “Kingdom come, [His] will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. (Matt. 6:10)

1The Chronology of the Old Testament, Nolen-Jones, Floyd Master Books Green Forest, AR, 2018 p. 55
2The Schocken Bible: Volume I, The Five Books of Moses, Fox, Everett, Shocken Books, New York, 1995 p. 256

John 8:31-36 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”

34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Our passage for this morning is the continuation of a longer dialogue (which covers all of chapters 7-8) between Jesus and different groups of Jews and Jewish leaders. It took place over a couple of days at the Feast of Booths, just six months before Jesus’ crucifixion. Throughout the exchange, Jesus taught things that were significantly different than the prevailing understanding of the Jews of His day. Over and over and over, Jesus would teach, the Jews would push back, Jesus would correct their misunderstanding, and insodoing, Jesus would uncover yet another misunderstanding of the Jews.

The question ever before Jesus’ hearers was: Would they conform their understanding to Jesus’ teaching or would they dismiss Jesus for not conforming to theirs? The majority rejected Jesus, choosing instead to go along with the current consensus.

Throughout this prolonged interaction, however, there were several “breakthroughs of belief.” That is, there were several places where Jesus’ hearers seemed to come to a place of acceptance. For instance, in 7:31 we read, “Yet many of the people believed in Him, they said, ‘When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?’” In 7:40 it says, “When they heard these words, some of the people said, ‘This is the Christ.’” And our passage from last week ended with this, “As he was saying these things, many believed in him” (8:30).

What we see in the Feast dialogues, is consistent with the rest of John’s Gospel up to this point as well. A significant number of people are said to believe in Jesus. What we’ve also seen consistently up to this point, however, is the fact that not all belief is the same, and not every kind of belief leads to salvation. There is unbelieving belief and true belief.

Unbelieving belief accepts some aspects of Jesus’ teaching or authority, but rejects it at a foundational level. Unbelieving belief, at its core, sees oneself—not Jesus—as the ultimate judge of truth. It says, in essence, “I’ll give you that, Jesus (whatever “that” happens to be), but I’m reserving judgment on the rest.” That kind of belief, held by so many, is useless. In fact, it’s worse than useless; it is deadly in that it keeps people from recognizing their unbelief!

What, then, is true belief; or saving belief? In our passage for this morning, Jesus clarifies this yet again. His clarification comes in the form of a three-part lesson. First, genuine belief, the kind of belief through which the Father’s saving grace flows, is the kind that abides in Jesus’ word. Second, abiding in Jesus’ word means knowing truth. And third, knowing and abiding in the truth is the only path to true freedom. We’ll look at each of those things in order that we might understand, believe, and live as we are made to do. Let’s pray and dig in.

Before we get to what it means and looks like to abide in Jesus’ word, let’s take just a minute to consider what’s going on here. Have you ever been in a situation where you were the lone voice for something you really believed in. Everyone else was against your idea; or at least not willing to speak up for it. If so, you know how lonely of a place that is to be. And if so, you know how much even one voice of support can mean. The relief and joy and encouragement that comes from hearing someone join you in the struggle is hard to explain. But what if you somehow found out that one voice of support didn’t really understand, and if they did, they wouldn’t really be on your side. In my experience, the temptation to cling to their partnership, even while knowing that it is a mirage, is significant.

Some form of this is what happens every time someone wants to be baptized or become a member that might not be ready. It happens when you speak up for Jesus in class or on a sports team. It’s also what happens often when we’re faced with the choice of addressing or ignoring the sin of another Christian. It’s easy to just go with the flow and hard to take a stand. Going along with things keeps a (fake) form of peace and standing firm almost always stirs up strife. Therefore, finding someone, anyone, to join our side, even if they only appear to agree with us, is a huge temptation.

That’s what Jesus was faced with. While He stood, mostly alone, with almost everyone angrily against Him, out from the crowd came a few voices of support. If Jesus weren’t Jesus, He might have been tempted to accept some flattery and fake followers to save face with the crowd. He could have tried to build a fake coalition to help Him get out of hot water. At the very least, He might have allowed the people who claimed they believed to believe they believed just long enough to get away from those who were about to try to stone Him…if Jesus weren’t Jesus. But Jesus is Jesus and so He was entirely unwilling to dabble in even the tiniest lie. Praise Him for this, Grace!

Instead, therefore, caring more about the glory of the Father and the good of His hearers than His own reputation and life, Jesus refused to allow unbelieving believers to remain comfortable in their unbelieving belief.

31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him [those from v.30], “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

All three parts of Jesus’ lesson are in those two verses. Again, we’ll look at each, beginning with v.31 and the fact that genuine belief is the kind of belief that abides in Jesus’ word.

Whatever kind of belief the people of v.30 had, Jesus felt the need to clarify the fact that the only kind of belief that matters is the kind that results in abiding in Jesus’ word. To abide, in this sense, means to remain, continue, stay, reside in Jesus’ words. In other words, genuine belief in Jesus, the kind that pleases God and connects us with His saving grace, is the kind that hears Jesus’ words, understands them, cherishes them, and lives in light of them no matter what. Genuine belief does not pick and choose which of Jesus’ words to believe, which to obey, or when to obey them. Of course, no one does this perfectly, but unbelieving belief makes a conscious decision not to accept all of Jesus teaching, while genuine belief truly longs and fights to obey every word and repents quickly when it falls short.

It’s somewhat like following a training plan for a race. You “abide” in the training plan in the sense that it’s always in your mind. You trust that by following it, it will help you get what you’re after. It’s always your intention to conform to it, it’s discouraging when you can’t, and you do what you can to get back on it ASAP whenever something gets in the way.

Abiding in Jesus’ word is somewhat like that, but also significantly different! The words of Jesus (unlike a running training plan or anything else) are perfect in every way. For all who have ears to hear, they are the words of life. They are the pathway to eternal joy. They are the description of how to live an abundant life. They describe the very heart and will of God. They tell us who God really is as well as who we really are. They warn us of danger and tell us how to escape from it. They correct us, rebuke us, equip us, and train us in righteousness. They are living and active, and therein always, perfectly able to prepare us for every good work required by God. They are sweeter than honey and more precious than gold. Nothing on earth comes within a million miles of them in wisdom, power, truth, beauty, or goodness.

To abide in Jesus’ word, therefore, is to recognize these things in the ever-increasing depth of our being. To abide in them is to increasingly live entirely in light of them, no matter the cost, in full assurance that the reward is infinitely greater. And in these ways, therefore, abiding in Jesus’ word is different than abiding in any and everything else.

On a very practical level, Grace, this means that we cannot abide in Jesus’ word if we do not read the Bible. Read your Bibles, every day. Read them carefully, prayerfully, thoughtfully, humbly, corporately, and with an unquenchable desire to be entirely transformed by them. On a very practical level, test every thought, feeling, and action in your life against Jesus’ words. Leave no stone unturned. Learn to ask the questions the Bible asks, understand the answers the Bible gives, do the things the Bible commands, believe the things the Bible says, and feel the things the Bible describes. Let go of every remnant of worldly wisdom, desires, and actions. Abide in Jesus word, and therein know that your belief in Jesus is real and you truly are His disciple.

Let me say one more thing about this. To abide in Jesus’ word in this way is a gift from God. We cannot muster it up on our own. We would not even want it on our own. That’s why the men and women listening to Jesus speak we’re primarily marked by unbelief and unbelieving belief. God had not yet given them that gift. Seek that gift with all your heart and you will find it (Matthew 7:7-12).

All of that leads to the second of Jesus’ three lessons on genuine belief.

Jesus declared to the skeptics, unbelieving believers, and genuine believers present, that genuine belief is marked by abiding in His word. And then He also said, “32 and you will know the truth…”. This is absolutely critical.

Advertisements are constantly before us and their central message is this: “If you buy our product, you’ll be better off.” That may or may not be true, but as long as you believe it, you’ll be willing to purchase the product. What’s more, as long as you believe it, you’ll be glad to abide in that product (remain in, continue with, stay with it). That’s why certain brands have staying power long after their products are surpassed in quality by lesser known brands or brands without the same marketing dollars or celebrity endorsements.

The question Jesus’ hearers need to ask, including you and me, is what makes Jesus’ words different than the promises of the advertisers that bombard us virtually every minute of the day. I gave a number of examples above, but they are all rooted in one thing: Jesus’ words are entirely true, eternally true, truly true. To hear Jesus’ speak is to hear truth. Therefore, to abide in Jesus words is to know and abide in that which is true.

Christianity is not some fairytale or spiritual lesson or religious parable. Christianity is a description of the truest truth and its implications for the world. Abiding in Jesus’ word isn’t primarily the right thing to do because God has the best marketing campaign or because He has the power to punish us if we don’t. It is the right thing to do because Jesus’ word is truth, and because everything that contradicts it is ultimately a lie.

The simple fact is this: to have found a word of Jesus is to have found truth. True disciples abide in Jesus’ word, and abiding in Jesus’ word is abiding in truth. This reality is at the heart of the famous passage later in John’s Gospel. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me” (John 14:6). We cannot be reconciled to God by believing lies. Jesus is the truth.

As the Jews listened to Jesus’ words, whether consciously or not, they were evaluating them on all kinds of levels; not the least of which was whether or not they rang true. And Jesus made it clear that what He said was true whether they recognized it or not, whether they believed it or not, and whether they cared about it or not.

That is what you are I are faced with when we come to the Bible as well. It is true for all people for all time and, therefore, our response to it will shape everything about us and the lives we live. In particular, by rejecting it as untruth, we will remain dead in our trespasses and sins and will forever live out of sync with our design and Designer. But if we receive it as the truth it is, it will lead us to trust in Jesus, abide in His word, live as we were made to live (now and forever), and show that we are His true disciples.

The third lesson Jesus taught in the first two verses of our passage is that “the truth will set you free.” This idea needs a bit more unpacking. To abide in Jesus word, to abide in truth, is in large measure to submit to Jesus and to obey His commands.

If you think about it for a minute, you’ll realize that that idea is pretty counterintuitive. We often think of obedience as a lack of freedom. To be commanded by another to do something is, it seems, to surrender our freedom for the sake of obedience. We are either obedient to someone or something outside of us or we are free. Isn’t that how we usually think of this? How, then, do we make sense of Jesus’ statement that abiding in/obeying His word will set us free?

The key is in understanding the fact that freedom isn’t what we think it is. True freedom is not the ability to choose between two alternatives. True freedom isn’t the ability to make our own choice, unhindered by anything outside of us. True freedom, rather, is the God-given ability to rightly choose that which is best.

Grace, I know this is a bit philosophical, but Jesus was being a bit philosophical, so we need to do our best to follow His logic. I’ll do my best to state it plainly.

If you and I are faced with two choices—one that would be best and one that would be less than best—the only thing that would ever compel us to choose the not-best thing is a lack of freedom. The two primary “freedom-lacks” that cause us to choose something other than that which is best are: 1) a lack of knowledge of that which is best, and 2) a lack of appreciation for that which we know to be best.

Imagine the person who had two plates put in front of them. One had the healthiest, most delicious meal possible on it (probably Jake’s smoked brisket and Meister’s fresh cut french fries.) and the other had maggot-infested kale. What is it that would allow that person a genuine choice between the two plates? That is, what is it that would cause them to desire the maggot-infested kale to have any appeal at all? And the answer, according to Jesus, is not freedom, but a lack of freedom. To desire maggot-infested kale over the healthiest, most delicious meal possible means the person either doesn’t understand the choice in front of them or has something wrong with them that keeps them from wanting what’s best for them. In either case, they are not free.

As non-Christians we always, entirely, lack both the knowledge of that which is best and an appetite for it. We are not born free. We are born slaves to sin. Like many standing before Jesus in our passage, all non-Christians fail to see that which is best and even when it’s standing in front of them, they lack proper appreciation for it.

But even as Christians, we often struggle with a lack of both. That’s because as Christians, we have been freed in one sense, and are still being freed in another (that’s what sanctification is). That’s why situations arise all the time where we struggle to know what is best in a given situation (a parenting dilemma or marriage struggle or work problem or friend conflict), but even when we do know, our flesh often creeps in and chokes it out.

In order to help you see the staggering glory of this teaching of Jesus, let me bring it back to the text. Jesus’ true disciples, He said, abide in His word. To abide in His word, Jesus said, is to abide in truth. And to abide in truth, is to be free. In other words, true freedom is always rooted in truth and truth is always rooted in Jesus. That’s Jesus argument.

Again, it’s hard to explain how truly life-changing this is if we are to grasp and live in light of it. There is no freedom apart from Jesus because Jesus is true and Jesus is best. Come to Jesus, today and know the kind of freedom you were made to have, the kind that knows what’s best and desires it above all.

This leads us to a familiar place and a familiar question. How would those who heard these words respond? Were they eager to abide in the truth and freedom of Jesus’ word or in the lies and slavery of their own wisdom?

As has often been the case in John, the answer comes quickly and disappointingly.

33 They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone.

This really is an odd response from the Jews. Saying they had “never been enslaved to anyone” is as false as it gets. They’d been enslaved to many nations. In fact, one commentator wrote (Carson, PNTC, 349), “There was scarcely a major power whom the Jews had not served: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Greece, [and] Syria…had all held the Jews in political captivity.”

Perhaps, then, rather than “we” referring to the Jewish people as a whole, they simply meant themselves—those physically present to hear Jesus speak. That would be comically false as well, for they were currently under significant Roman rule and impression.

By referring to themselves as “offspring of Abraham,” and in light of Jesus’ response to them, we know that they had spiritually captivity in mind. It’s curious that they didn’t say, “and have never been slaved to anything,” but nevertheless, they believed themselves to be spiritually free already by virtue of being offspring of Abraham and, therein, participants in the covenant promise God made with Abraham.

Genesis 17:1-7 … the LORD appeared to [Abraham] and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, 2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” 3 … And God said to him, 4 “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations… 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.

Again, the Jews understood themselves to be reconciled to God and spiritually free based on that everlasting promise. And for that reason, they denied Jesus’ premise that they had anything to be freed from. Therefore, they wondered, “33 How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”

And in response to that, Jesus sought to help them understand a key piece of the gospel and the true meaning of being one of Abraham’s offspring and an heir of the covenant God made with him.

34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

The two keys to Jesus’ reply are: 1) The person who is characterized by sin (“practices sin”) rather than righteousness, is a slave to sin and must be freed from it if they are to be free. That’s what Jesus accused the Jews of doing. That’s the heart of v.34. And 2) Only Jesus (the “son” who “remains forever”) can set the slave free, for only Jesus is true and truly best. What’s more, the freedom Jesus offers is of the permanent type (“forever”), bringing those who abide in Him into the family of God as beloved sons and daughters. “36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” That’s the heart of vs.35-36.

This really is a remarkable passage. In it we find that abiding in Jesus’ word is abiding in truth. And we find that abiding in truth is the only path to true freedom. The Jews standing before Jesus failed to understand this, believing themselves to already possess both the truth and freedom. Jesus’ words were meant to help them, and us, recognize that they had neither. Until abiding in Jesus’ word is the great cry of our heart, we remain enslaved to the sin we inherited from Adam. As the apostle Paul helps us to see (Romans 9:8), true children of Abraham, and true heirs to the covenant God made with him, are not his physical descendants, but his spiritual descendants; those who trust in God as Abraham did. And as Jesus helps us to see here, trusting in God as Abraham did means abiding in Jesus’ word, the word of truth. And those who do are Jesus’ true disciples and are free indeed.

Grace, consider these things carefully. And consider especially the question before the Jews in this passage: Will you abide in Jesus, in truth and freedom, or will you abide in Adam, in lies and bondage? Just as Jesus stood before those in John 8, His word is before us today, beckoning us come to Him, for He is truer, freer, and greater than everyone and everything else and He offers us the chance to share in those things with Him as His true disciples.

John 8:21-30 So he said to them again, “I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.” 22 So the Jews said, “Will he kill himself, since he says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” 23 He said to them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.” 25 So they said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning. 26 I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.” 27 They did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the Father. 28 So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. 29 And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” 30 As he was saying these things, many believed in him.

In this passage, as John makes clear in the opening words, we have another public teaching of Jesus during the Feast of Tabernacles. Hopefully, as we’ve made our way through the Gospel, you’ve noticed that a central component of the Christness of Jesus was His teaching. Insodoing, Jesus corrected (sometimes centuries, or even millennia old) lies or misconceptions, revealed mysteries that had been hidden for ages and generations, and offered His hearers the chance to be transformed by the renewing of their minds. Above all, though, in His teaching, Jesus offered the fullest revelation of God and therein invited all into repentance, worship, and fellowship with God.

As Jesus taught these things, people wondered. They wondered who this man was. They wondered what to do with Him. They wondered what to make of His unique authority and insight. They wondered how to respond to His claims, rebukes, and commands. And they wondered what to do with all of this in light of the prevailing, condemning sentiment of the religious leaders.

And as Jesus’ own words make clear, the outcome of their wondering was of no small consequence. To believe Jesus (and believe in Him) meant life. But to disbelieve or reject Jesus was to die in sin. Jesus put His glory and the glory of the Father on display for all to receive, and so the decision was ever before His hearers—believe in Jesus and be reconciled to God or reject Jesus and remain dead in trespasses and sin.

At its heart, this is a passage on the various glories of Jesus and the various responses of those who witnessed it. We see Jesus’ glory in His certain knowledge of the future (both His and that of His hearers), His heavenly origin, destination, obedience, and affections, His offer of salvation through His sacrificial death, His consistent and entirely divine teaching, His divine nature, and His perfect pleasure. And we see the various responses of the crowds in the confusion of most and belief in some. The main takeaways for us are to pursue the glory of Jesus in faith and declare it to the world that the world might not die in sin.

In these few verses, John records a back and forth between Jesus’ teaching and the crowd’s response. Four times, Jesus taught and the crowd responded. Much of the content of Jesus’ teaching is familiar, even as much of the response of the Jews is familiar. Jesus’ first statement is especially familiar, “I am going away and you will seek me…Where I am going, you cannot come” (21). In 7:34, Jesus said, “You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.”

In both cases, Jesus’ main point was that He would soon return to the right hand of the Father and as long as anyone (and especially the proud Jews and Jewish leaders) refused to believe Him and trust in Him, they could not join Him in the Father’s fellowship.

Here, though, Jesus added something a bit more pointed, “and you will die in your sin.” As we’ve seen, Jesus did not come to earth to condemn people to death. Rather, Jesus came to make sure everyone knew that they were already dead in their sin, so that He might save them from it. Jesus will expand on this in v.24 and offer a bit of hope also, but the simple, shocking truth is that we are all born into sin and we all sit under its wages—death.

Jesus, the long-promised Christ, presented Himself to the offspring of Abraham, the children of the promise, to be received in faith. Rather than receive Him in gladness and hope, however, most despised and rejected Him. And Jesus’ message to them was that He would only be with them for a little while longer. He was about to go to a place that only the faithful can follow. Therefore, as long as His hearers remained in their unbelief, and continued to seek the Christ in someone other than Him, they would remain dead in their trespasses and sins.

Marvel with me at this revelation of Jesus’ glory. Jesus knew that the will of the Father was for Him to return to the Father’s side once His mission was accomplished on earth. He knew that this group of hard-hearted Jews was lost in their pride and unbelief. He knew that they were only growing in their desire to kill Him. And yet He continued to offer Himself to them that they might find life! Like the Jews of John 8, having heard Jesus’ teaching and seen His glory, we can’t not respond to it. Doing nothing is doing something.

Given this teaching and revelation of glory, the right response should have been (and still is) belief, repentance, worship, and obedience. Instead, the Jews responded to Jesus’ teaching here, much as they did in chapter seven. In both cases they were confused at best and mocking at worst. In seven they wondered if Jesus was leaving to go teach among the Greeks. Here, they wondered if Jesus would kill Himself (v.22). More than likely this was a kind of slight on Jesus. Suicide was considered one of the worst sins a person could commit. To suggest that Jesus would do such a thing was less a genuine question and more a subtle attack on His character. Ironically, of course, Jesus would willingly lay His life down, but it would be at the hands of these men, not His own.

Instead of marveling at Jesus’ glory, the crowds mocked in disbelief. We’re certainly seeing that kind of response in increasing measure all around us today. Our culture is swiftly moving from mild guilt-inducing indifference to explicit hostility. And yet, we need to keep two things in mind. First, while the shift toward greater hostility “out there” might make our lives harder in some ways, dead in sin is dead in sin. It is the same sovereign grace of God that must enliven the most outwardly rebellious heart and the heart of the unknowingly unbelieving homeschooler. And second, while we must care about and for those “out there,” our first concern ought always be for our own hearts. We ought always look to strain the camel of functional unbelief from our own eye before we can properly focus on the (ever growing) gnat of angry unbelief in the world around us.

In other words, while it’s often easy for us scoff at the faithless response of the Jews in passages like this one, and easy to scoff at the growing and destructive unbelief of our culture, our first impulse should always be to recognize that but by the grace of God, there go I.

As the crowd and leaders responded in confusion and mockery, Jesus’ next teaching cut to the heart of why they responded as they did. Jesus not only taught the truth, He also taught on why so many reject and even scoff at the truth.

23 He said to them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.”

In these few words, Jesus painted a brilliant picture of the vast chasm between Him and His hearers.

They, Jesus said, were “from below,” “of this world,” and “dead in their sins.” If this sounds familiar, it’s because these things are largely echoes of John the Baptist’s words from chapter 3. And again, the heart of it is that rejecting Jesus is the universal mark of those who are fallen, allies of the flesh and the devil, in (conscious or unconscious) rebellion against God, and at enmity with God. Collectively, that’s what Jesus meant by “from below,” “of this world,” and “dead in sin.” Of course, this is the opposite of what Abraham’s children believed about themselves, but as Jesus taught over and over, sincerity and zeal are not the same as rightness.

In glorious contrast, Jesus was “from above” and “not of this world.” Jesus, the second person of the Holy Trinity, the only Son of God, the eternally begotten of the Father, wasn’t, isn’t, and never will be marred by sin or deserving of death. He is eternally perfect in every way. Every single thing in heaven and earth holds its proper place in Jesus mind and heart.

“I spoke the truth to you, but you do not receive it. That’s because we have different origins, different fathers, and, therefore, different desires and vantage points. You cannot see clearly because you are blinded by your sin. You cannot hear my words for what they are because you are friends with evil and dead and deaf to the things of God.”

In spite of all of these things, Jesus offered a glimmer of hope and therein another display of His glory. Rather than declaring them reprobate, Jesus said, this is where you are from and this is where you are headed, but one thing can change all of that: “unless you believe that I am he”. If you continue in unbelief, you will continue in death. But if you believe that I am he, that changes everything.

The two things to see, are (1) that belief in Jesus (not doing better or trying harder or keeping a higher percentage of the law) is the means of receiving the saving grace of God, and (2) curiously, the specific belief in Jesus that serves as a conduit of grace, is “believing that I am he.” In a way that will become clearer in vs.48-59, Jesus was here claiming to be God. Consider the words of the Father in Isaiah 40:10, “You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he.”

At this point, owing to a bit of grammatical ambiguity, it wasn’t entirely clear to the crowds what Jesus meant. Any and all ambiguity is gone by v.58, but we know now, what the crowd was soon to find out: Jesus is God! Again, marvel at this glory, Grace Church. Jesus put His glory on display for His first audience through His spoken word. And He is putting it on display today through His written word. Just as His first hearers needed to respond, so do we. We are all either of the world or, by grace, of God; from below or, in Jesus, from above; dead in our sin or, through believing that “I am he,” alive to God. And our rescue from the former into the later is entirely owning to the fact that the man Jesus is also divine. Amazing glory!

Again, with eyes to see and ears to hear, the crowd ought to have been filled with awe, conviction, belief, and worship. Instead, these sayings led the crowd to wonder aloud, “Who are you?” (25). They suspected Jesus was claiming something truly staggering, but they weren’t yet sure, so they asked Jesus to clarify.

Again, Jesus was breaking every mold. He didn’t fit into any boxes anyone had. Everything about Him caused those around Him to have to recalibrate in their confusion. In some cases (as we’ll see in v.30) they recalibrated to belief. In most, however, they recalibrated in anger at the audacity of Jesus to claim the things He claimed (Christ claims and divine claims).

Grace, while most in this crowd asked the question with blind eyes and hard hearts, this is the right question! To truly understand Jesus—His nature, claims, works, and mission—is to have your sensibilities continually shaken (or destroyed) and realigned. If you read your Bible and don’t regularly find yourself asking of Jesus, “Who are you?,” then you’re not reading or considering carefully enough. As non-Christians, our minds are in complete incongruity with Jesus. And even as Christians, the transformation of our minds is a life-long work of the Spirit.

Pursuing Jesus is to constantly discover new wonders about His glory. Many of us experienced that many times last summer as we read “Gentle and Lowly,” for instance. Considering the heart of Jesus for us as we hope in Him but struggle with sin was awesome. In different words, I often wondered, “Who are you, Jesus? I thought I knew you, but your glories go deeper and higher still!”

As we’ll see, some in the crowds had that same reaction (“many believed in Him”), but according to Jesus’ words, many more didn’t. All, however, upon hearing Jesus’ teaching wondered, “Who are you?!”

In answer to this question, Jesus essentially told the crowds that He hadn’t waivered on His claims. From the start of His ministry, Jesus’ message about Himself hadn’t changed.

Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning.”

Expanding on and clarifying that idea, Jesus went on to reiterate a few more of the things He’d already said.

26 I have much to say about you and much to judge,

The “much to say” part seems plainly in keeping with John’s account of Jesus’ life and ministry, but what about the “much to judge” part? Isn’t that a contradiction with 8:15 (“I judge no one”)? There is, of course, no contradiction in (any of) Jesus’ words. In this case, as Jesus explained in the very next clause, the words He spoke (all of them), were from the Father. Whatever truth, encouragement, correction, or judgment that came from His mouth was from God.

but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.”

“Everything I say and all the judgments I make are true, since they are directly from the Father.” This too is a familiar refrain for Jesus in the face of the continual assault of confusion, skepticism, and persecution He received whenever He taught—”If you have a problem with me or my words, your real problem is with God, since I am here entirely according to His will”.

Again, what glory! Jesus was sent personally and directly by God. What’s more, everything He said to the world was spoken to Him by the Father. O, that we would follow in His seps. For we too have been sent by God to speak the truth in love to the world (Matthew 28:18-20), and we too have been given the words to share with the world. May we see the glories of Jesus, may we learn the words of Jesus, and may we take them boldly to the ends of the earth!

That’s what the crowd ought to have done, but in a final confused response (this time narrated by John rather than spoken by the crowd), the crowd failed once again to understand what Jesus really meant. Once again, John noted the disorientation of those who heard Jesus speak. That is, he wrote, “27 They did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the Father.”

Reading between the lines, the Jews who heard Jesus speak must have wondered who sent this man and why is He functioning a spokesman. Who is He talking about? As Jesus said, this message was the same as He’d proclaimed from the beginning. Back in 5:30 He said, “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.”

This is yet another reminder that the issue most definitely wasn’t about the clarity of Jesus’ teaching. It was about the lack of spiritual understanding of those who heard His words.

In response to their confusion, 28 …Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.

In essence, Jesus told the crowd that what was unclear presently would be made clear soon enough. They would hand Him over to be crucified (“when you have lifted up the Son of Man”), and then at least some of their confusion would lift. At the very least, when that happened, they would know that Jesus was from God, as was His teaching. It might be too late for some by then, but nevertheless a time of greater clarity was not far off.

And then, in one final word from the Father, Jesus said, “29 And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.”

This was the verse that stood out to me the most this week. Here, the inexhaustible glory of Jesus is (for me at least) easiest to see. Jesus made two claims that are unspeakably awesome. He claimed that the Father was always with Him and that His entire life—all He thought, felt, said, and did—was a pleasure to the Father.

Grace, in case some part of that isn’t already clear to you, those things ought to be the cry of every heart…always in the presence and pleasure of God, always doing the things that are pleasing to God! Whatever else you are chasing, stop. Whatever else you long for in greater measure, stop. Whatever else you’ve placed your hope in, stop. Whatever else you imagine heaven to be like, stop. Having the Father eternally and unwaveringly with you, and living in a manner entirely pleasing to God is the highest aim and greatest reward anyone could ever receive. Jesus lived perfectly in that, from eternity past until eternity future, and by believing in Him we can join Him in that. O what glory!

Finally, at this point, on some level at least, “many believed in him” (v.30). John doesn’t clarify the nature of the belief—whether it was unbelieving belief or genuine belief—but Jesus’ final words seem to have penetrated hard hearts to some extent. May that be the case for us as well, and through us as we declare this good news to the world!

John 8:12-20 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” 13 So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.” 14 Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. 15 You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. 16 Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. 17 In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. 18 I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.” 19 They said to him therefore, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” 20 These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple; but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.

I want to thank Kyle for preaching last week and for serving us well by faithfully guiding us through another Psalm as he’s done for many years now. Rightly connecting head, heart, and actions is key to Christian maturity and I appreciate Kyle’s commitment to fighting for that in his own life and for inviting us into the battle with him. And in case you didn’t know, Kyle was serving me as well in agreeing to preach so I could travel to MI to be with my family in light of my uncle’s passing. Thanks to those of you who prayed for me and my family.

Well, after wading through the murky waters of John 7:53-8:11, it’s good to be back on solid ground. By taking a look at that passage and then taking another week away from John (with Kyle preaching), we run the risk of missing an important connection between 7:37-52 and our passage for this morning. I’ll get more into the connection later in the sermon, but for now it’s good for us to understand that in this John 8 passage, Jesus did something almost identical to what He did in the John 7 passage. In both, in the context of the Feast of Booths, Jesus made a claim about Himself (He offered rivers of living water in 7 and in 8 He is the light of the world) that was deeply rooted in the feast traditions and OT prophecies. Likewise, in both passages, John devoted significantly more words to the response Jesus got than to the claim itself. These two passages really do go hand in hand (and are almost certainly meant to be back to back) to paint an awesome picture of Jesus the Christ and the good news that is for the world. Paired together, they also help us see even more clearly the disorienting and deadly effects of sin on our ability to understand and appreciate that.

The heart of this passage is that Jesus is the light of the world. And that’s unimaginably good news for a world plunged into darkness. It is my hope and prayer that God would be pleased to use this passage and sermon to draw us out of the darkness and into the light of Christ. Let’s pray that it would be so.

In another powerful opening statement, Jesus claimed of Himself, “I am the light of the world”. Before we dive into that, let me remind you that this is one (the second) of seven main “I am claims” Jesus made in John’s Gospel.

John 6:35 I am the bread of life.
John 8:12 I am the light of the world.
John 10:7 I am the door of the sheep.
John 10:11 I am the good shepherd.
John 11:25 I am the resurrection and the life.
John 14:6 I am the way, and the truth, and the life.
John 15:1 I am the true vine

John’s main aim in writing his Gospel was, once again, to convince his readers that Jesus is the Christ, in order that we might believe in Him and have eternal life (20:31). Each of these “I am” claims cuts straight to the heart of two things: (1) The fact that Jesus understood Himself to be the Christ and (2) Jesus’ understanding of His essential nature as the Christ. His claim to be the light of the world is certainly no exception.

To help us best grasp the meaning and significance of this claim, let’s consider the context in which Jesus made it from three increasingly widening perspectives.

The immediate context of Jesus’ claim was, once again, the Feast of Booths (Tabernacles). A few weeks ago when I preached through the end of chapter 7 and Jesus’ offer of “living water”, I pointed out that Jesus made that statement on the day of the height of the water-pouring ritual—a ritual practiced every year, throughout the week, and especially on the last day of the feast. “The point of the ritual was to celebrate the miraculous way in which God had given water to His people from a rock through Moses, and to anticipate a similar miraculous giving of water through the Christ when He came.” For that reason, because water played such an important, daily role in the feast, Jesus’ claim would have been clearly understood and amplified.

Jesus’ claim to be the light of the world has another, similar, feast-specific connotation. According to the earliest Jewish written tradition (the Mishnah; as recorded in TNTC, 201, Kruse),

At the close of the first Festival-day of the Feast they went down to the Court of the Women where they had made a great amendment. There were golden candlesticks there with four golden bowls on the top of them and four ladders to each candlestick, and four youths of the priestly stock and in their hands jars of oil holding a hundred and twenty logs which they poured into all the bowls. They made wicks from the worn out drawers and girdles of the priests and with them they set the candlesticks alight, and there was not a courtyard in Jerusalem that did not reflect the light of the Beth ha-She’ubah.

The main point is that from the first evening on, throughout the entire feast week, candle light was an important and unmissable aspect of the feast. Light would have been on everyone’s mind, every day, in a special way. Understanding this, Jesus had another perfect backdrop for His claim and another way to reveal Himself as the source of another shadow—the fulfillment of another of mankind’s deepest longings.

To zoom out just a bit, within the Gospel of John, Jesus’ relationship to light has already been, and will continue to be, a key theme. In his introductory paragraph, which intentionally drew his readers’ minds back to the creation account of Genesis 1, John explained one aspect of Jesus’ nature.

John 1:1-5 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

A little later in the Gospel (3:19-21), John expanded on this idea.

John 3:19-21 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God.”

In our passage, as we’ll continue to press in on, Jesus spoke this way about Himself. He understood Himself to be the ultimate source and fullest sense of all light. And going forward, Jesus will continue to describe Himself as the light of the world and expand on its meaning.

John 9:5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

John 12:35-36 “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”

John 12:46 I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.

The main thing for us to see is that light is an essential aspect of Jesus’ nature and was, therefore, a consistent and important theme for both John and Jesus in this Gospel.

Finally, to zoom out one more time, John and Jesus certainly said what they said about Jesus and light with several OT prophesies in mind. Isaiah in particular promised that the Christ would be a light for the world (see also, 49:5-6 and 51:4).

Isaiah 42:6-7 “I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, 7 to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.

By tapping into the significant place of light in the Feast of Booths and the OT prophesies concerning the Christ as light to the world, Jesus knew His words would not fail to be understood. Understanding this, John highlighted this idea throughout his Gospel. Coming to realize these things ought to help us lean into Jesus’ words.

Grace, all of these combined help us to see something truly amazing. Before coming to the meaning of Jesus’ words, I want to draw your attention to one of the sweetest realizations you can make as you work your way through the Bible—absolutely nothing you will experience in life is arbitrary. Everything that exists, exists for a God-given purpose. Things that we often give little thought to, are gifts from above to create in us categories to understand the infinite glory of God. We find two examples of this in these last few paragraphs in John—water and light. There are, perhaps, no more ordinary or essential things in our lives than water and light. We’re almost never more than a few feet away from both and we cannot live long without both. And yet, have you ever considered the fact that God did not need to make us to need them. He chose to, above all, so that Jesus words in John 7:38 and John 8:12 would make sense to us. Marvel at this, Grace. We get thirsty and need water to live so that we are able to understand Jesus’ claim to be living water, the true source of all satisfaction. Likewise, we need light to see and live so that we are able to understand Jesus’ claim to be the light of the world, the true source of understanding and life. Awesome!

Rightly understood, then, the feast, the Gospel, and the prophets add a lot of weight to Jesus’ claim, but what did it actually mean? What exactly was He getting at in claiming to be the light of the world? Jesus tells at the end of v.12. The heart of His claim is that as the light of the world, “Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” But again, what does that mean? There are three main tenets of this greatest news.

1. First, sin has thrust the world into darkness. In order to truly appreciate why Jesus’ announcement was such good news, we need to understand some bad news first. Since Adam and Eve, sin has been in all mankind and darkness with it (Genesis 3: ; Romans 5:12). The John 3 passage we read earlier is rooted in this truth. The main point for us to see here is that Jesus’ declaration that He is the light of the world, was spoken into a world consumed with darkness. All people, since the first people, naturally walk in darkness.
   
2. Second, as Jesus’ explanation and the Isaiah prophecy both make clear, this kind of darkness is marked by a combination of confusion, lies, evil, and death. As you can tell, the news gets worse before it gets better. Darkness and confusion go hand in hand. When we cannot see, navigating anything is difficult. However, while it’s frustrating to try to do almost anything in the dark, sin-induced darkness goes much deeper still. Biblically, it is characterized not merely by confusion, but also lies, evil, and death.
   
   This is why the religious leaders, along with so many throughout Jesus’ ministry, responded as they did (more on that in just a bit). It was precisely because they were entirely immersed in sinful darkness that they couldn’t see Jesus for who He was. It was because they were in darkness that they misunderstood, lied about, hated, and eventually killed Jesus. And this is still why so many reject Jesus and His design for life, gender, sex, goodness, purpose, and everything else. It is why they are not only missed and dismissed, but also, increasingly, despised. This spiritual darkness is why so much of the world is as it is.
   
   This is bad news, but the cure for cancer is only truly good news if cancer is real and deadly. Having your college loans paid off is only good news if you have college loans. And finding out that the light of the world has come into the world is only good news if we know we are lost in darkness. All of this combined, then, leads to the goodness of Jesus’ pronouncement.
   
3. As the light of the world, Jesus was clarity, truth, goodness, and life. The first key here is that Jesus IS the light (not that He has the light). Light isn’t a market cornered by Jesus or something He brings with Him when He travels. Jesus is light. He is clarity, truth, goodness, and life. And the second key is that in this, Jesus is the rescue from sin and darkness. To come to Jesus (“whoever follows me”) is to leave darkness. It is to leave confusion and to be able to see clearly. It is to leave lies and gain truth. It is to forsake evil and accept good. And it is to be rescued from death and given resurrection life.
   
   Coming to the light of Christ is to be given spiritual sight for the first time. It is what allows us to see the holiness of God. It is what allows us to see sin as sin and righteousness as righteousness. It is what allows us to see and walk the path of forgiveness and freedom in Jesus. It is what allows us to receive and give the love of God. It is the beginning of the freeing of our wills and the ability to recognize that God is greater than we’ve ever imagined.
   
   In a world that was dead in darkness, Jesus declaration that the light of life had come is the greatest news anyone could ask for or imagine.
   

With this knowledge, how could anyone fail to rejoice? How could Jesus’ original hearers? And, since the offer still stands, how could we? Let’s consider the response of those who first heard Jesus before coming back to our response in conclusion.

While the heart of this passage is Jesus’ claim to be the light of the world, that only covers one verse. The rest of the passage focuses on the response of the Pharisees and Jesus’ response to their response (just as was the case at the end of chapter 7). It is not insignificant that John chose to highlight the response of the leaders more than the claim itself. Jesus is and always has been what He is. We need to know that. But we also need to know how to respond (and, as in this case, not to respond) to it now that we have it. So much of our lives are a matter of being confronted with a truth about Jesus and needing to respond to it as we should—with swift repentance, obedience, or worship.

How, then, did the leaders respond and what did Jesus make of that?

I wonder, what would you do if someone came to the farmer’s market at Grace and in the midst of the crowd declared themselves to be the light of the world. How would you respond? What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you consider that scenario?

I think my initial response would be to think the person crazy. Second, I imagine wanting to talk to the person to find out more what they meant and what I could do to help. What would never occur to me is what the Pharisees actually did…especially when you add in the fact that Jesus had performed miraculous signs and taught with unparalleled authority among them.

13 So the Pharisees said to him, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true.”

Having seen and heard all that they did of Jesus, the Jewish leaders’ response concerned a technicality of the law. According to the law (Deuteronomy 17:6; 19:15), more than one witness was needed to establish the veracity of someone’s testimony. Jesus acknowledged this, and agreed to it, in chapter 5(:31-37). There he claimed to have John the Baptist and God Himself as witnesses.

The main point of the Pharisees, is something along the lines of “By God’s design, big claims require big proof and you have none. Anyone can make claims like that, so God has given us a way to test them and you fail that test. You say these things about yourself with no one to back you up so we are right in not believing you.”

As we’ve seen many times throughout John’s Gospel, the Jews and Jewish leaders are consistently pictured as grasping at straws. Their eyes were darkened and they were, therefore, unable to see what was right in front of them. They were willing to do anything to keep from having to acknowledge Jesus as the Christ. They were willing to entertain just about every conceivable conclusion related to Jesus’ claims, except that they were true. Such is the darkness of darkness.

How, then, would Jesus respond to them? We don’t have to wait long to find out.

Take a look at the very next verse, v.14.

14 Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. 15 You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. 16 Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. 17 In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. 18 I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.” 19 They said to him therefore, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.”

In His response to the Pharisees’ contention that He didn’t have the proper number of witnesses to claim what He claimed, Jesus made six basic arguments. He has already said and explained most of them in John’s Gospel, so I’ll just briefly state them.

1. My testimony is always true. I never lie. I am God and I am truth. The law was given as a reflection of my character and as a means of protecting you all from one another since you fall short of it. I am the fulfillment of it, while you are unable to keep the smallest portion of it. (14)
2. If you knew where I came from—that is, who I am—you’d believe me. But since you don’t, you judge by the wrong standard. And since you judge by the wrong standard, you have judged wrongly. (14)
3. Rather than judging by the right standard, the eternal, spiritual truth that is rooted in me, you judge with your own wisdom and only according to what you can see, the flesh. (15)
4. While you spend your time in wrong judgment, I judge no one. That’s not why I’m here. But even if I did, it would be perfect in every way and in perfect agreement with the Father who sent me, since we are one. (15)
5. Nevertheless, even though I am not bound by the law in the same way you are (“your law”), because I have my Father as my witness, I keep the law you accuse me of breaking. (16-18)
6. All of your problems with me stem from the fact that you think you know God, but you don’t. As I’ve said many times, if you really knew God, you’d receive me with great joy and eager obedience. (19)

Obviously, claiming to be the light of the world is no small thing. Why would anyone believe anyone who claimed such a thing? Jesus’ reply answered that question in a simple, profound, and irrefutable way: You should believe me because I am the Christ, the only Son of God, sent in the love of the Father to rescue you from the very sin and darkness that keeps you from seeing and believing the things I’ve placed before you.

Jesus is the light of the world. Those charged with leading the covenant people of God had their eyes darkened by sin and were unable to see this. Consequently, rather than rejoice as they ought to have, they sought to dismiss Jesus on a matter of legal technicality. Jesus let them know that they were both wrong on their application of the law and on who it was standing before them.

Again, then, let’s not miss the earth-shaking magnitude of Jesus’ claim—to be the light of the world, the one and only one who would deliver mankind from sin’s darkness. Likewise, let’s not miss the fact that John focused most on the leaders’ response to this claim. The significance of that is in the fact that it is a call for us to consider our own response to the fact that Jesus is still the light of the world.

Where is your understanding of darkness and light defined by the world instead of God? What love of darkness remains in you? What is keeping you from coming fully into the light? What lengths are you willing to go to, to share the light of the world with the world?

Finally, John closed this scene by commenting on something familiar.

20 These words he spoke in the treasury [most likely the court of women, the location where the lights of the Feast were first lit on the first day], as he taught in the temple; but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.

John’s point, once again, is that the sovereign hand of God cannot be stopped or stayed. God was bringing light and salvation to the world through Jesus. No power of hell and no scheme of man was, is, or every will be able to keep the love of God from coming to and remaining on all who will receive it. Come, therefore, Grace, to the Light of the World in the certain knowledge that when you do so in faith, you will be welcomed, forgiven, freed, given understanding, and adopted as everlasting sons and daughters of God!

God has given us Psalm 37 to answer the question of what the righteous are to think and feel and do when confronted with evildoers and wicked deeds.

Psalm 37 exists to help us answer this question: What are the righteous to think and feel and do when they are confronted with evildoers and wickedness? That is the question this whole sermon aims to answer. What are we to make of unpunished, unchecked acts of evil and those that do them? What are we to think about this? What are we to feel about this? What are we to do about this? What does this teach us about God (who he is, what he does, and what he is concerned about)? What does this teach us about people?

The point of this psalm, and the other 149 psalms in this book is to help you have proper, God-exalting feelings that have their roots in powerful, God-revealed truths, for walking in the path of God-glorifying obedience. This psalm commands us to not only do certain things when we are confronted with evil. We are commanded to feel certain ways and not feel other ways! We are commanded to have emotions. Right feelings aren’t optional if you are serious about wanting to obey God. If you haven’t thought much about that, it ought to leave you scratching your head. How do I make myself feel a certain way?

That reality may leave you as discouraged as my daughter was when she was a toddler. She was in a bad mood, and told by Johanna to go find her happy heart. She replied, “I can’t find it. It’s lost forever.” How do we make our hearts have certain emotions? Psalm 37 commands us to not feel fret, anger or envy. Rather, we are commanded to feel delight in God. This song helps us answer that question.

Think about what evil is going on in the world around you today. In Sudan, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces is warring against the Sudanese army in a battle seeking power and control. Hundreds of civilians have died and 3,700 of them have been wounded, over a power a struggle. I hear ongoing stories from a Haitian friend of mine of what the roving gangs in Haiti have done to send a hurting country further into violence, hunger and despair. My friend has had to flee his home with his mother and sister. They have no money. He’s lost his job and can’t find work. There are days they have no food to eat. In two months, they won’t have any money for rent and worry about if they will even have a home to live in. In our nation a couple weeks ago, the state of Oregon kept Christian families from doing foster care over evil, gender ideology issues. We can see here in Minnesota even, laws being passed that endorse evil.

In my job, I have arrested people who have done evil things, and they seem to have little or no consequences for their actions. I was hit by a drunk driver, spent a month in a dark room with a concussion, and still deal with the physical impacts of it three years later. The driver received 12 days in jail. That didn’t seem very just to me. Maybe you’ve been cheated on a business deal and lost money as a result of it. I am sure many of you have personal stories of how someone has done evil to you, and they did not have any consequences from it. What are we to think and feel and do in light of this?

Within Psalm 37, the word “wicked” appears in fourteen verses. “Righteous” or “righteousness” appears in ten verses. The promise of “inheriting the land” shows up in verses 9, 11, 22, 29 and 34. These are the big themes of this song. This psalm is an acrostic song. Every two verses begins with the next letter in the Hebrew alphabet. In keeping with this flow, the song does not have a clear line of thought. It weaves in and out of these topics.

There are three main points that I have seen in this song. To see these, I think it will be more helpful to move around to different verses within it, rather than work our way through it verse by verse.

Let’s ask three questions of this psalm as a way to understand what the circumstances are that David is dealing with. Who are the wicked and what are they doing? Who are the righteous and what are they doing? Who is the Lord and what is he doing?

First, Verse 12 says that the wicked are marked as plotting against the righteous. They gnash their teeth at them. The wicked are making plans to sin against the righteous. They gnash their teeth; which gives us a picture of a wild animal getting ready for a vicious attack. The wicked do not want godly people to succeed in what they are doing.

Second, the plans of the wicked are so heinous that they seek to put the righteous to death (v. 32). They hate the life of the godly so much, they want to stop them with violence. They want to draw their sword and bend their bows against the righteous. The wicked are on the attack against the godly, against those who are poor and oppressed and whose way is upright (v. 14).

On February 12, 2015, ISIS released photos of 21 Egyptian Christian construction workers that they had kidnapped. Shortly after that, a video was released, showing all of them wearing orange jumpsuits, kneeling along a waterfront in Libya. Moments before their beheading, some of the Christians can be heard saying “O Lord Jesus!”, suggesting that they may have had a chance to convert to Islam and be spared their lives, yet they chose martyrdom. That day, 21 righteous Egyptian Christians had their lives crushed by the wicked who wielded their swords on them.

The wicked are not marked by only physical violence against the righteous though. A third description of the wicked is that they borrow, and do not pay back (v. 21). They look for opportunities to take advantage of people for their own personal gain. David says in verse 35 that he has seen the wicked spreading their evil like a green laurel tree. For a time, for a season, the wicked succeed and flourish in their evil acts.

The wicked and evildoers are those who make plans to stop the righteous from following God, and use things and people for their own goals and their own comfort.

Now, contrast that with the righteous. Who are the righteous? First we see that while the wicked person’s heart has its own personal ambitions, the heart of the righteous is set on the law of God (v. 31). For the righteous, God’s commands are at the center of his or her thinking and motivations. The righteous person is not making plans for selfish gain. Rather, their heart is set, it is dominated by following the path that God wants them to walk. We will see more specifically what this means later on. The righteous set their mind on the Word of God.

Second, the upright in heart are described in verse 14 as poor (meaning oppressed) and needy. The righteous are not strong in their own strength. They are not like the wicked, walking around with swords and bows, exerting their strength and will over the weak. Do you feel weak, needy, and dependent? If so, that is a good place to be for it lends itself to moving our heart towards dependence on God. God’s people are lowly and recognize their utter need for God’s help. That is why they are setting their hearts on his instructions (law). God’s help meets his people through God’s Word. What a comfort that is for me! I often feel undone and inadequate to do what God calls me to do, yet that is where I ought to be. That is where God is for his people, as they acknowledge their poverty and their neediness in humble help before him.

Third, in further contrast to the wicked, the righteous are marked by compassion and generosity (v. 21). While the wicked are using people to their own advantage, the righteous are looking for ways to meet needs, relieve suffering and give to others from their own resources. It is all too easy to develop cynicism, to become hard-hearted, or to complain about the evil and wickedness going on around us. That is a mark of what the world does. For the righteous, because God’s instructions in his Word are on their hearts (the center of their thinking and their motivation) they move towards the needs of people, not away from them. They are always looking for ways to lend generously (v. 26).

Fourth, the things that righteous say are marked by wisdom and justice (v. 30). The way they speak and how they see circumstances around them is marked by the reality that God is in control. What they speak flows from their heart being set on God’s instructions from his Word. If your heart is being dominated by God’s Word, the overflow of that will be sentences that come out of your mouth to others that are full of wisdom and justice. O how we need to have our hearts and minds dominated by God’s instructions and not dominated by news articles and headline stories. The righteous talk differently, because their hearts are shaped by his Word.

In the midst of all this, the David reminds us of three things about the Lord (Jehovah, the Existing One, the personal name of God).

He knows. Take comfort in the fact that God sees all of the acts of evil taking place and nothing is hidden from his knowledge. The Lord knows the days of the blameless (v. 18) and they are not put to shame in evil times (v. 19). The Lord upholds the righteous (v. 17).

He laughs. God is as much threatened by the acts of the wicked, as you would be if I were to threaten to give you a paper cut with a cotton ball. You would laugh at that. God laughs at the acts of the wicked. The Lord laughs at the wicked because he sees that his day is coming (v. 13). This is not a funny kind of laugh. It is a disgusted type of laugh. The Lord is disgusted with evil-doers and he laughs at their measly attempts to exert their own desires, because he knows their day in court is coming. Their wicked deeds done against the righteous, in the span of eternity, are nothing but a stupid attempt to exert paper cuts with a cotton ball. That is what happened on that beach in Syria to those 21 Egyptian Christians. Yes, there was real pain in their death. However, the pain they felt in their momentary death, compared to the glory and joy they received in their eternal new life, is nothing in comparison. God laughs in disgust at the evil acts of these men, knowing that if they will never humble themselves in repentance before Almighty God, they will stand before his sovereign court room on their knees in utter trembling and terror.

The Lord knows. The Lord laughs. And the Lord loves. What does he love? He loves justice (v. 28). God’s judgements and his decisions and his plans will come about, because he loves them and is committed to them. His plans were not stopped when 21 Christians lost their lives that day in 2015. He did not forsake them when their heads were removed from their bodies. His plans will not be stopped in Haiti by roving gangs that kill and rape and steal. God is committed to punishing all acts of evil because he loves his justice and he will not forsake his saints.

We’ve seen that the wicked make plans to stop the righteous, and are concerned with their selfish ambitions. The righteous will set their hearts on the instructions of Lord, in humble dependance on God and have an ambition to help others. The Lord knows all this, laughs in disgust at the wicked, and loves justice.

This psalm gives us specific commands that we are supposed to do when we see wickedness and evildoers, but it doesn’t limit the commands to only doing. We are commanded to feel certain emotions. The psalms are there to stir within you proper, God-exalting feelings that have their roots in powerful, God-revealed truths, for walking in the path of God-glorifying obedience.

The very first verse says that we are not to feel envy towards evildoers nor are we to fret. We shouldn’t resentfully long to do what the wicked do, and conversely we shouldn’t burn with personal anger inside our heart that they are getting away with it.

The word fret means to be hot, furious, or burn with vexations. We are being told to guard our hearts against feelings of hot anger when we see evildoers getting away with their wickedness. Do not fret over the one who prospers, carrying out evil devices (v. 7). Do not fret. It leads only to evil (v. 8). Refrain from anger, forsake wrath (v. 8).

Letting fury seethe and percolate within our soul will not produce delight in God. I can feel this kind of fretting bubble up in my soul in my job. We put hours and hours of work into a case, and charge a suspect with multiple crimes. Only to see him get released on low bail, or have multiple charges reduced down to one charge, resulting in little to no jail time. I can feel fretting bubble up in my soul when I hear my friend in Haiti talk about having to flee his home with his mother and sister because gangs are taking over homes, burning people alive, and pushing out missions organizations from doing good work in that country. I can feel vexation bubble up in my soul when I hear that Christians, willing to do foster care, and give kids safe homes that need families, are prevented from doing so because they hold to biblical beliefs on gender and sexuality.

This type of building, burning vexation over evil that I see going on around me, will only lead to evil taking a hold within me. It will take hold of you and me and create within us cynicism, hard-heartedness and envy. You will fall into evil yourself should you fret over evil. So much of the news reporting business in America is designed to stir up fretting within you. Turn off the TV news show and turn on your theology of Psalm 37. Turn off the cable news and turn on The World And Everything In It podcast. Do not feel envy. Do not feel fret.

We will come back to one last command to feel, because it is at the center of all these commands and I want to end there. For now, let’s move on to commands we are to do.

What are we to do when we see wickedness and evildoers going about their deeds?

First, rather than fretting, we are to trust (v. 3). Trust in him and he will act (v. 5). We are to have confident expectation that God will act, that his judgements will come down on evildoers, and his plans will come to pass. We are to set our minds on this truth; that he will bring forth our righteousness as the light and our justice as the noonday. Criminals who fail to repent of their crimes, and turn to Jesus, will one day find themselves before The Eternal Judge, to give an account of their evil. Violent gang members will stand before the Lord, who is a warrior, and will find their own violence visited upon them. Politicians who enact godless and evil laws will stand before The Lawmaker to give an account for what they did with their time as an earthly authority. Light will overcome the darkness and shine as the sun. Promised light will come.

Second, we are to do good (v. 2). Trust is not passive. We are to turn away from evil and do good (v. 27). Trusting that God will act with his judgements does not infer that we are to sit around passively until the world ends, waiting for God to make everything right. Our defensive position (that we know how the story ends) sets us up well to go out on the offensive (do lots of good). Use what God has given you to do good.

Grace Church, your efforts in supporting Together For Good are one awesome example of that. So many children and mothers have been helped through your good deeds. I have seen incredible acts of financial generosity from people at Grace towards funding adoptions and funding missionaries. The gospel has been shared. Burdens have been lifted. Meals delivered. Discipleship done. These are ways we do good in a world of evil, shining light into darkness. Johanna and I started doing foster care because we were motivated to do good, after I became a cop and started seeing the kids that were coming out of broken homes and dangerous situations. What ways are you doing good in your life now, rather than fretting over evil? We have a lots of ways we can do good! God’s people are marked by their good deeds in a world of evildoers.

Third, be faithful. By doing good, we are dwelling in the land and befriending faithfulness (v. 3). The word “befriend” used here means to shepherd and lead to safe pasture for feeding. We are to feed on faithfulness. Let’s be firm and steady in our acts of goodness, until the end of our days. Do not fade away in your good deeds, or be lulled into comfort and convenience as we age, pulling back or throttling down on doing good. Let’s be found to be doing good, as long as we can, in as many ways as we can, feeding our souls on faithful living for the Lord.

Fourth, commit your way to the Lord (v. 5). God’s people are not marked by their own way or their own feelings. His people are committed to the Lord’s plans. Therefore we do good and trust in him.

Fifth, be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him (v. 7). Wait before the Lord and keep his ways (v. 34). Be still before him in prayer. Be still before him by setting your heart on the Word of God. Be still before him by thinking over his promises. Be still before him in prayer asking for God to kill feelings of anger and stir within you trust that he will act in his good timing. Be still. Wait patiently. Keep his ways.

Sixth, mark the blameless and behold the upright (v. 37). We can look around at our church and see examples or what others are doing for good as examples for us on how to live. I’ve been challenged by Stephen Hampshire in his zeal for evangelism. I’ve been amazed at all the work Gerri VanAcker and others have done and continue to do in making Together For Good flourish at Grace Church. I’ve been encouraged by Crystal Quigley’s quiet, steady faithfulness in her Christian walk in the face of many hard circumstances. The list could go on and on. Put examples in front of you of others that are doing good. While the world churns and spins with evil around us, God promises a future reward for those who walk uprightly, and gives them his peace in the present as they do good.

That’s a lot of doing. Where does the motivation for this come from? To do good and not fret in the face of evildoers is not a normal response. How are we do and feel all of this in the face of wickedness and evil?

That answer comes from the the core of all these commands. Verse 4 and verse 31 show where the motivation comes from. “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart…The law of his God is in his heart; his steps do not slip.”

The righteous are those who have the law of God in their hearts (v. 31), and are seeking to delight themselves in the Lord. Delight of the heart in the Lord is the answer to how we do these commands and how we feel the right way. At the core of the blameless and the upright is that they seek to have a heart that is deeply rooted in God. As you seek to make yourself happy in the Lord, he will give you the requests that your heart longs for. This happens when the law of your God is in your heart.

Psalm 119 shows you what it means to have God’s Word in your heart. I did a sermon back in 2018 from Psalm 119, giving 14 benefits from memorizing and meditating on God’s word. Do you want to delight in God and take joy in obeying his commands? Do you want your heart to feel delight and kill anger? Set your heart on God’s word through desperate, prayerful, memorizing and meditating on it. Rise up before dawn and read it. Put in front of you all the day long. Run to it. Pant for it. Diligently seek it. Search for it like treasure. Cling to it like a lifeline. See it as the comfort it is. Read it for the goodness you will find. Depend on it for the life it gives. Encourage others with it for the hope it offers. Stare at it to see what you did not see before. And pour out your heart in worshipful praise to God for the delight God gives you.

Grace Church, God has brought eternal, massive truths from Heaven into the world we live in, and put them on pages for us to read, to know, and to delight in. He gives us his promises as the rocket fuel for delight of God in our hearts. So let’s finish up by filling our tank with that rocket fuel by looking at the promises that we see in Psalm 37.

O God, may these promises be set in our heart in such a way that we are dominated in our thinking and feeling and doing of them. Help us see a little more into the unsearchable riches that are found in your Word.

First, we are given the promise that evildoers will fade like grass and wither like a green herb (v. 2). To me, the picture of grass fading is easy for me to understand. My grass withers and fades really fast as the summer heats up. Green turns to brown quickly at my house. But the picture of a green herb fading does not have the same mental picture for me. Green herbs seem lush, ripe and flourishing. In the middle east though, vegetation will lose its beauty within a few days after hot, dry desert winds parch the land. They fade even quicker than my grass does. We have a promise that the wicked acts of evildoers will fade. They will not succeed ultimately.

Second, the wicked’s own sword will enter their own heart and their own bows will be broken (vs. 15, 17). This is poetic justice. This is emotionally satisfying. When I’m reading a book to my kids, or we’re watching a movie with a villain, my kids instinctively cheer when the villains own evil schemes come back on him, and the good guy wins in the end. We have that promise in the ultimate battle against evil. God will thwart the plans of the evil so that their own wicked schemes will come back to bring judgement on them.

Third, we are given the promise that evildoers will be cut off from the Lord (vs. 9, 10, 28, 38). Cut off from what exactly? From God! They will be altogether destroyed forever (v. 29). This is referring to divine, ultimate, eternal judgement that God will render toward them for what they have done.

The Lord, the Almighty One, laughs at the wicked in disgust. He sees their day coming. We do not. What we see are the days in which evil seems to flourish. We see the days of the righteous being plotted against. We see the days of the flaunting of sin and success of sin expand and become accepted. The Lord sees the day. The day in which all sin will be accounted for by those who have done it and not repented of it. The day in which all wrongs will be made right. When everything sad will become untrue. The Lord knows. That’s a promise that ought to fill your tank up full with delight in God.

For the people who are godly, that is those vindicated by God, there are so many promises just in this one psalm to ponder. Just these promises alone could be a whole other sermon.

You are better off having little as a righteous person, than abundance as a wicked person (v. 16). The whole of this psalm should move us towards being more abundant with our giving and our compassion and our good deeds, and more small in our lifestyle and our consumption. The wicked do the opposite. They seek abundance in lifestyle and nothing in the path or righteousness. Take an inventory of your life, and ask yourself, if you were to have almost all of your possessions removed, would you still find delight in the fact that you are considered righteous before God? Would you be willing to lose your job for doing what is godly, even if it meant having little? Would you be willing to have a small lifestyle for the sake of being a missionary to an unreached people group? Here’s why this is a great promise. Righteous people who are willing to have little and be content, or already have little and are content, are much better off because they get much of God. They are dependent on him and he promises that he will uphold you. The abundance of the wicked is a slippery slope to hell, but the little of the righteous shows them much delight in God. He gives them the desires of their heart because their heart is set on his Word, and on his Word is where they meet God and know him more fully and deeply. May we be a people that want much of God more than we want much of our comforts and conveniences.

Here are more promises that God gives to the righteous that I will hit on more in rapid fire because of time. Let these wash over your soul like a refreshing shower, for they are massive promises for the righteous. Then I will finish with a final focus on one more promise.

• He promises to bring forth their righteousness as the light and their justice as the noonday (v. 6).
• While the wicked have their own swords and bows pierce them in divine judgement, God promises to uphold the righteous (v. 17). He will carry them them, sustain them, care for them.
• The Lord will not abandon the righteous to the power of the wicked, or let them be condemned when they are brought to trial (v. 33). You may be tried in the court of public opinion in this life. You may lose friends or co-workers for not going along with evil, but when you stand before God at trial when eternity is in the balance, there will be no condemnation for the righteous. They are his people.
• The Lord has given his salvation to the righteous, and he is their stronghold in the time of trouble (v. 39). There is no condemnation for the righteous before God because he has saved them from their sin. They are made righteous through salvation.
• The Lord helps and delivers the righteous from the wicked and he saves them, because they take refuge in him (v. 40). The Lord fights for the righteous. The righteous find help and deliverance as the swords of the wicked are swinging and arrows of evil are flying.

The final promise I want you to see is the promise of an inherited land. Verse 9 says that those who wait for the Lord will inherit the land. Verse 11 says the meek will inherit the land and delight in abundant peace. Verse 29 says that the righteous will inherit the land. Verse 34 says that those who wait for the Lord and keep his way will be exalted to inherit the land. Whatever this inheritance of land is, we know that it will be received by the righteous who are marked by meekness, marked by keeping his way, and marked by patient waiting on the Lord.

My question is, what is this land? Where is it? What is it like? When will we receive it? Why is it land that God is giving the righteous? We know in one sense that God gave an inheritance of land to his people when he delivered them out of Egypt and brought them into the land he promised them. But I think God is offering to the righteous something far greater than physical land, here in this world. That would be far too small of a consolation prize if you were to think of it in that way.

Rather, I think David is writing with an eternal mindset here. A land that has a location in eternity. The reason I think that is because David is speaking in eternal ways. Verse 29 says that the righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it forever. Verses 18, 27, 28 and 29 are speaking in eternal ways. Especially verse 27 which says that if you do good you will dwell forever. Or verse 28 which says that God’s saints are preserved forever.

Jesus brought the promise of an inherited land from Psalm 37 into his Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 when he said that blessed are the meek (the poor, humble, lowly and needy saint) for they shall inherit the earth. The reward for the meek, for the righteous, is a great reward in the new heavens and the new earth. This will be a new earth where evil does not run rampant. Where evil does not seem to go unpunished. Even more than that, in the new heavens and the new earth evil will not exist! There will be no victims of crime. There will be no roving gangs that terrorize the weak. There will be no one who takes advantage of other people. There will be no pain. No sorrow. No suffering. No tears. And above all, we will be in the presence of Jesus. The righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of the Father (Matthew 13:43). Were your physical body in this world, living under the curse of sin, to try and see what a resurrected body looks like in the new earth, your eyeballs would melt under the brightness of its beauty. We can’t begin to comprehend the sheer glory and beauty of what is waiting the righteous in the new heavens and the new earth.

And what of the wicked? Jesus promised that he will send his angels to gather all the wicked, all the evildoers, and send them into the fiery furnace of hell. A place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. That is the final and eternal chapter for those who do evil, and never humble themselves in repentance before King Jesus.

The Lord does not forsake his saints. They are preserved forever (27, 29). That is the promise to the man and the woman who put their trust in God. It is the greatest promise that God could offer mankind. The righteous are kept by God for eternity. In the economy of God, he takes what is seen as less valuable by the world (meekness, weakness, compassion, generosity), and elevates it over what temporarily looks like to be of more value (abundance of possessions and selfish deeds). The brilliant, clarifying glory of Psalm 37 is that it helps us cut through the fog of this life and helps us see what is true reality. Psalm 37 is like a piercing shaft of light coming from a lighthouse perched high upon the cleft of a rock. It cuts through the fog to show us the way and avoid the peril of the wicked.

In the face of all the wickedness that is happening in this world (whether it is evil you read about in Sudan or Haiti, or evil you see happening in our government, or evil you have had personally happen to you), are you seeking to have your heart happy in God? This is not a superficial, fake smile, everything is alright happiness Psalm 37 is talking about. This is a deeper, eternal, higher happiness that says, come what may in this life, my heart’s delight is the sovereign, powerful reign of Almighty God. Come what may! My hope is in him for my sights are fixed on a heavenly country whose designer and builder is God. That is where my hope is found. The language and descriptions and wording in Psalm 37 are visual descriptions meant to not only shape your mind in thinking and move your body for obedience. They are also meant to stir your affections for righteousness and build an anticipation of God crushing the wicked and bringing his saints into eternal glory. Delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. He will give you himself.

That is what you were made for. You were made love God and enjoy him forever. You were made for delighting your heart in God more than anything else. Yet wickedness and evil is not only what is happening in Sudan or Haiti or at the Minnesota State Legislature. It is happening in your own heart. Do you hate the evil that is going on around you more than you hate the evil that is happening in your own heart? You do evil. I do evil. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We all deserve the punishment of the wicked. Yet Jesus, who endured the wicked and evil acts of men who killed him, who endured the cross for the punishment of our sin; had his sights fixed on the delight that was set before him. He endured the cross, for the glory of his Father. To reconcile the righteous to himself and bring them into everlasting joy in the new heaves and the new earth.

Grace Church, may we be a people marked not by anger or resentment or bitterness towards those who do evil. May we be marked by the delight we have in God and the good we do towards others, as we are trusting in the future promises of Psalm 37. Remember Abraham. God promised him a land that he never saw in this life. Hebrews 11 said he saw it, and greeted it from afar, but never received it. So also, may we walk by faith, looking to the day when we will inherit the earth. May we be delighting our heart in God, by looking to a city whose designer and builder is God.

David wrote Psalm 37 as a song. We are a gathering, singing people who see the perplexities of unchecked evil today, and eagerly wait for a promised future of tomorrow. So sing this morning! Delight in God. Befriend faithfulness. Today we do good. Soon we will inherit the land.

John 7:53-8:11 They went each to his own house, 1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. 3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst 4 they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. 5 Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” 6 This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7 And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

Concerning the Bible, our church and denomination’s doctrinal statement reads, “We believe that God has spoken in the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, through the words of human authors. As the verbally inspired Word of God, the Bible is without error in the original writings, the complete revelation of His will for salvation, and the ultimate authority by which every realm of human knowledge and endeavor should be judged. Therefore, it is to be believed in all that it teaches, obeyed in all that it requires, and trusted in all that it promises.”

There is a ton of good stuff in there. But for the purposes of our text this morning, the key phrase is “the Bible is without error in the original writings.” And within that, the key word is “original.” It’s key because(, as your Bible probably indicates,) John 7:53-8:11:

1. Probably wasn’t in the original Gospel of John.
2. Probably wasn’t written by John.

If these things are true, why, then, (1) were they included in certain copies in the first place (beginning in the 8th C), (2) why in this place in John’s Gospel, and (3) why are they still in it if we’re fairly certain they shouldn’t be?

The answer to the first question (originally included) is twofold. (1) Scholars have, for centuries, and still do to a very large degree, believed the event described in this passage probably did happen in the ministry of Jesus and (2) that the account recorded in our Bibles today was quite possibly written by an apostle (most likely Luke).

The answer to the second question (in this place in John) less clear. In later manuscripts it’s found in at least five different places (three in John and two in Luke). Given the answer to the first question, though, it seems that the sentiment was that it had to go somewhere. Why it eventually ended up in this place in John, we’re just not sure.

And the answer to the third question (still in) is that the Church is rightly very, very slow in doing anything to alter the biblical text as it’s been handed down to us. Scholarly fads are all too common and it’s not entirely certain the passage isn’t original. (Cynically, fear and ignorance probably play a role in it as well.)

It may be news to you that there are certain words or passages in the Bible that scholars aren’t confident are original. But all of those places are clearly marked with footnotes in most modern translations (far less than one percent of the entire Bible), and none deal with substantive issues of the gospel. Our passage is the most significant example of these things (along with Mark 16:9-20). Given all of this, there are five things I want you to keep in mind as I make my way through this text:

1. Because it probably happened and was possibly recorded by an apostle, I’m going to cover this passage in the context of a worship service. But because it probably wasn’t original or written by John, it’s better to think of this as a standalone lesson rather than ordinary preaching.
2. I’m not going to try to link it with the rest of John.
3. We should avoid any attempt to establish doctrine from this passage alone.
4. We should have confidence in any conclusions or applications we draw from this passage only insofar as they are established in other, non-contested passages (which I’ll try to do even more than usual).
5. I’m happy to talk more about this with anyone who is interested and to provide you with some of the scholarship that I’m basing my conclusions off of.

In spite of all of this, it is my hope that rather than serve as a discouraging or doubt-casting confession (I remember being a little rattled when I first heard this), this intro and message will give you greater confidence in the trustworthiness of the Bible and provide you with a beautiful, historical picture of the love of our Savior in action.

Let’s pray, therefore, and then dive into this most intriguing passage.

The first two verses provide us with the backdrop of the scene. In them we see that those who were with Jesus went home and that Jesus spent the night alone on the Mount of Olives. And we see that early the next day, Jesus went back to the temple, sat down, and taught. This time Jesus taught in the public court of the temple (which was a normal thing for rabbis to do), making Himself easily seen and heard by anyone who was so inclined. It also indicates that Jesus drew a decent sized crowd to listen to his teaching.

The rest of the passage (8:3-11) tells us that at some point in the course of His teaching, a group of Jewish leaders interrupted Jesus by bringing an adulteress before Him in an attempt to trap Him.

Ultimately, this is a simple story of the unparalleled love of Jesus Christ. That is, this is not primarily a story of corrupt religious leaders, the role of the law of God in the lives of God’s people, the mysterious writing of Jesus on the ground, or even the adulterous woman. First and most, it is a living picture of John 3:16-18 in action.

John 3:16-18 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

With that in mind, this passage does describe the trickery of the scribes and Pharisees. It also gives us a picture of salvation in the woman. Above all, though, in those two things we see Jesus’ unmatched wisdom, courage, mercy, and grace. Combined, these things marked His love expressed; His love incarnate. Let’s dive into each of these things now, beginning with the trickery of the scribes and Pharisees.

Again, although the main point of the passage isn’t about the Jewish leaders, they contribute something important. Their important contribution is a kind of trickery that serves to provide a stark contrast with Jesus’ love. It is the self-serving deceitfulness of the scribes and Pharisees that gives the righteous love of Jesus such a clear opportunity to shine in the darkness. This trickery shows up in four distinct ways.

First, the scribes and Pharisees brought the woman, but not the man. Adultery, as you know, requires two parties. The fact that they caught the woman in the act, means they caught the man too. And yet, it was the woman alone, the most vulnerable to manipulation, the least able to defend herself from any injustice, the one who was able to put up the least resistance, the easiest target, that they brought.

S

econd, they brought the woman to Jesus, not those who had the responsibility to rule on such cases. The Sanhedrin held court on such matters and was responsible for rendering a verdict and prescribing the proper sentence. Jesus was not a member of the court or Sanhedrin. He had no earthly authority, and no authority at all in the eyes of the men before Him. Their trickery is seen in the fact that they brought the woman before Jesus instead of the place they considered proper. But why? We see the answer in the next point.

Third, they brought the woman before Jesus in order to trap Him. Their question wasn’t genuine. Tragically and treacherously, the men who most postured themselves as experts in the law and as those most serious about keeping the law, were entirely uninterested in actually upholding the law in this case. In fact, this really wasn’t a question of the law at all. The law was clear. “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death” (Leviticus 20:10).

The gist of the trap seems to be this: If Jesus were to show compassion and suggest the woman should not be stoned, He could be charged with advocating the breaking of God’s law. But if Jesus insisted that the woman should be stoned according to the law, He could be charged with promoting insubordination against the Romans who, at that time, demanded to have oversight over all capital punishment. Again, as we’re told explicitly in v.6, all of this was simply a way to trick and trap Jesus. “This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him.”

Finally, forth, their trickery is seen in the fact that they left when faced with the consequences of their own scheme. When Jesus turned the question back on them, rather than stand firm on what they knew was right, “they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.”

Even if this passage doesn’t belong here, it presents a picture of the Jewish leaders that is consistent with the rest of John’s Gospel. It shows them to be confused, cowardly, hypocritical, and more interested in maintaining power than doing the will of God. But again, all of that simply served to best show the unparalleled love of Jesus. And that’s where we’ll turn now.

Again, according to John 3:16, it was the love of God that brought Jesus into the world and salvation through Him. But, as I mentioned earlier, true love is always incarnate. That is, love is not an unexpressed feeling. It is benevolence lived out. In our passage, the lived-out love of Jesus took several forms: wisdom, courage, mercy, and grace.

If love is something like affectionately pursuing that which is best for a person, and wisdom is something like knowing what’s best, then wisdom is a fundamental component of love. How can we affectionately pursue that which is best for someone if we don’t know what that is? Love requires wisdom. Jesus’ wisdom is on display in a couple of ways in this passage.

First, we see it in v.2 where “all the people came to him” to be taught by Him. This was mainly because many people recognized that Jesus possessed a wisdom that was extraordinary. That is the consistent teaching of the Gospel writers.

Matthew 13:54 coming to his hometown [Jesus] taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works?” Similarly, in Mark 6:2 we read, “on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him?'”

Jesus’ wisdom is seen here in the fact that people flocked to Him to gain it and were astonished when they did.

A second way in which we see the unparalleled love of incarnate Jesus, incarnate as wisdom, is in His response to the tricky trap of the Jewish leaders. We saw earlier that the scribes and Pharisees had gone to great lengths to set a trap for Jesus. They seemed confident in their plan. It seemed to be going well as Jesus failed to answer their question, writing something in the dirt instead. And then, in His wisdom, in a single sentence, Jesus upheld the Law and simultaneously turned both the issue of Roman insubordination and that of adultery back on His questioners.

The single sentence was, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” In these words, Jesus acknowledged that the law was clear and authoritative on this issue and the woman was guilty. And with these words, Jesus also made it clear that those who brought the woman to Jesus and laid the trap for Jesus would have to decide whether they would keep God’s law or Roman law. Let me explain.

Jesus upheld the authority of the law by admitting that a first stone ought to be thrown. But insodoing, He pointed the scribes and Pharisees to another aspect of the law. Deuteronomy 17:7 says that when it comes to a capital crime, more than one witness is needed. It also says that “The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him to death…”. In other words, Jesus said to the scribes and Pharisees, “You’re right, the law commands that an adulteress be stoned to death. And you’re right to bring with you several witnesses to the crime. Now, keep the whole law and be the first to stone her.”

What’s more, Jesus turned the crime itself back on the “witnesses.” While He turned the law back on them in the second half of His sentence, He turned the crime back in the first half, ” Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” Jesus wasn’t saying that only sinless people could be a part of executing judgment on sin as God commanded. Instead, it seems that Jesus was directly accusing them of being guilty of the same crime which they accused the woman! “If you’re going to stone her, you must stone yourselves too!”

That His accusers understood Jesus’ wisdom to be superior in every way is indicated by their response to this single sentence, “9 But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.”

Loving someone well requires the wisdom to know what is best for them. Jesus’ wisdom is seen clearly here in exposing the leaders’ hypocrisy and providing the woman with an opportunity for redemption (more on that later).

The second way in which we see the unparalleled love of Jesus in this passage is in His courage. Sometimes the pursuit of that which is best for another is costly. It can be difficult to know what’s truly best for a person and sometimes even more difficult to actually do it. And in those cases, love requires courage.

The Jewish leaders are consistently pictured as bullies in the Gospels. They regularly used their learning and authority to shame, guilt, and manipulate people who challenged them. We’ve seen this a number of times in John’s Gospel. For instance, in last week’s passage (in 7:52), when Nicodemus, one of the Pharisees, spoke up against the hypocrisy of his fellow Pharisees (who were set to condemn Jesus without a hearing, contrary to the law), they mocked him. Likewise, in 7:10 we read that it was “for fear of the Jews [the Jewish leaders]” that the crowds were afraid to acknowledge Jesus as the Christ. In chapter 5 they tried to intimidate the man Jesus healed by the pool of Bethesda.

The leaders had significant power; power to put people out of the temple and synagogue, power to interrupt their livelihood, power to make the lives of the family members of those they opposed very difficult, power to ruin reputations, power to drive people from the land, and even power to put people to death. For the 1st century Jew, government, family, religion, and work were all intertwined in a single system, and the religious leaders trying to trap Jesus held power over almost all of that. Standing up to them was no small thing.

That is perhaps most clearly seen in the fact that these same Jewish leaders regularly made plans and attempts to kill Jesus (5:18, 7:1; 7:25). Eventually, as we know and Jesus knew, they would be successful.

In the face of all of this, Jesus feared no man. His courage was unwavering. He was so committed to giving His life as a ransom for the world, that He had no fear of anything man could do to him. Thus, when pressed and cornered by the leaders, rather than timidly back down, Jesus courageously remained true.

In this , we’re confronted with the question of our own courage. How much are we willing to risk for the sake of identifying with and following Jesus? When confronted with mockers or enemies of the cross, what will we do?

More than just wisdom and courage, however, Jesus’ love took the form of mercy—compassion for the hurting. While the woman was indeed guilty of adultery, and while the crime and consequences were indeed serious, that the men brought only her, brought her into the center of the most public place, making her stand alone in the midst of everyone, and used her guilt merely as a tool for accomplishing their own twisted purposes, meant that the woman was truly in a lowly place. While Jesus in no way condoned her actions, He was not indifferent to her as a person. He showed significant mercy to her.

Jesus commanded His followers to be merciful. In Matthew 5:7 we read of Him saying, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” Likewise in Luke 6:36 He said, “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” He promised that He would be merciful in passages like Luke 4:16-21.

And most significantly, Jesus was merciful. This is the unwavering picture of Jesus we find in the Gospels. Jesus showed mercy to the woman at the well (John 4:1-26), to the paralytic (Matthew 9:1-8), to the lost and sick (Matthew 14:14), to the hungry (Mark 8), to the blind (Matthew 20:30-34), to a leper (Matthew 8:2-3), to the paralyzed (Matthew 8:5-13), to the demonically oppressed (Mark 1:39-40), to a grieving man when his child fine (Matthew 9:18-30), and mercifully on and on.

In this passage, Jesus’ was primarily dealing with the treachery of the scribes and Pharisees, but insodoing, He expressed His love in His profound mercy to the lowly woman. And in that, we are rightly faced with the question of our response to those who are hurting? The religious lack of mercy among the leaders stood in stark contrast with Jesus in this. Which side do we fall on?

And finally, more even than through His wisdom, courage, and mercy, Jesus love took the form of amazing grace. Mercy is compassion for the hurting. Grace is help for sinners. As we’ll see in just a moment, in the final section, Jesus offered this guilty woman a way to be forgiven of her sin and reconciled to God. She deserved death, but Jesus offered His in her place!

Grace, consider the love of Jesus. His love expressed is filled with wisdom, courage, mercy, and grace. That is the heart of this passage and that is the love He has shown for us and calls us to show to the world. Would you consider that afresh today? Would you ask God for help to live that out even more faithfully today?

Finally, unfortunately, when this passage is addressed, it’s often with the woman at the center. That is understandable and compelling. It makes for a good story, especially for all who can understand the pain and loneliness of sinning in ways that are particularly egregious. Understandable and compelling, but also truly misguided. The woman isn’t named, barely speaks, and not a single description is given of anything she did in the presence of Jesus. While she isn’t the center (Jesus is), just like with the scribes and Pharisees, that isn’t to say we learn nothing from her. Indeed, she provides a remarkable picture of what it looks like to be undeservingly saved by the loving, sovereign grace of God. She brought nothing but guilt, shame, and weakness. And those things help us most clearly see that Jesus brought perfect and sufficient innocence, glory, and strength.

Jesus’ love came upon the woman in a manner that graciously offered her eternal salvation (not merely salvation from imminent stoning). And to best see that, there are two specific things we need to focus on: 1) The fact of her sin, and 2) The means of the redemption Jesus offered her.

We now live in a culture where a person suggesting that adultery (now called an affair) is a sin deserving any kind of negative consequence is more likely to be shamed than a person who actually committed adultery. This couldn’t be further from the truth or from the culture in which this passage took place.

As we saw earlier, the fact and consequences of the woman’s sin were unquestionable. She committed adultery. There were a sufficient number of witnesses. And the divinely-prescribed sentence was death by stoning. In a very real way, the woman brought before Jesus was condemned and powerless to do anything about it.

The key for us to see here is that the love of Jesus is offered to all, but is only able to be received by those who acknowledge their sin, its fatal consequences, and their inability to do anything about it on their own. There can be no loving grace, no forgiveness and salvation, where there is no humble acknowledgement of sin. Again, the first thing to see in the woman is that there most certainly was sin to be forgiven.

The first point leads to two questions: 1) Would the woman acknowledge this?, and 2) What could be done about it? Look again with me at vs.9-11 to find out…in reverse order.

… Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

An uncareful reading of these verses might sound like Jesus told the woman something to the effect of, “Yeah, you did something you shouldn’t have, but don’t worry, I won’t hold that against you. You’re fine. Just try not to do it again.” But, as you may remember from our time in John 3 (the passage I read at the beginning, 16-18), the fact that Jesus did not need to come into the world to condemn the world, doesn’t mean He never passed judgment on sin or found people guilty of sin. It means, rather, that He didn’t need to condemn the world, because the world already was condemned. Jesus didn’t come to condemn the world, He came to save the condemned world. Thus, when Jesus said, “neither do I condemn you,” He was saying in effect, “You are already condemned, but I came to rescue you from that.”

So, what solution did Jesus offer? How might the woman escape her condemnation? Jesus said, “Go and sin no more.” Again, on the surface, the meaning of this might not be obvious. It sounds at first hearing, like the woman needed to stop committing adultery and whatever other sins she might have been committing and Jesus would expunge the condemnation for those things from her record. “You get yourself right and I’ll forgive you.” But Grace Church, once again, that’s emphatically not what Jesus was telling the woman.

His charge to her was to repent, “from now on sin no more.” Repentance is one side of the coin of faith. Belief is the other side and is a prerequisite of repentance. In other words, if the woman did not believe in Jesus, she would not have obeyed His command to repent. To be clear, then, Jesus called the woman to place her faith in Him. For her redemption would be by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, or nothing. There is no other manner by which she might have been saved. Jesus was able to offer this because He would soon die in her place, taking upon Himself the just penalty for her sins.

All of that leads to the second question and my conclusion. What was the woman’s response to all of this. There are some contextual and grammatical hints that the woman might have believed in Jesus and received forgiveness by grace through faith. I don’t find those arguments particularly compelling.

It seems to me, rather, that Jesus merely offered Himself to her, letting her know that He would forgive her if she would believe and repent. I don’t believe this passage tells us how the woman responded.

In some ways, that’s an even more powerful ending. It leaves all of us, having considered the unparalleled love of Jesus and the scribes’ and Pharisees’ prideful rejection of it, wondering what the woman would choose. I say that’s even more powerful in that it forces us to choose as well. Will you acknowledge your sin and its consequences before God, trust in Jesus, and receive the unparalleled love of Jesus? Or will you remain obstinate like the scribes and Pharisees, or undecided like the woman seemed to be (both of which are to remain condemned)? Jesus does offer His love to you, but as we’ve seen over and over in John’s Gospel, He offers a particular form of love and on His terms—genuine faith in Him.

This is a story of Jesus’ unparalleled love, shown most clearly in contrast to a broken sinner and prideful religious leaders. The story and the contrast help us more plainly see the gospel offer this before us. May we all receive it in faith.

25 Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? 26 And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? 27 But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.” 28 So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I come from. But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. 29 I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.” 30 So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. 31 Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”

32 The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him. 33 Jesus then said, “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me. 34 You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.” 35 The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? 36 What does he mean by saying, ‘You will seek me and you will not find me,’ and, ‘Where I am you cannot come’?”

The events of John 7:25-36 still take place in the wake of Jesus’ teaching in the Temple during the Feast of Booths (7:14-15). Because of the clarity, simplicity, and authority with which Jesus taught, the Jerusalem crowds and Jewish leaders were wondering aloud what to do with Him. That’s the heart of this passage—more of the hearers of Jesus’ teaching wondering, “Who is this man? Can He really be the Christ?”

If that sounds familiar, it definitely should. Throughout his Gospel, John has presented a steady stream of stories of real-life people, from all walks of life (Jew and gentile, rich and poor, educated and uneducated, religious leaders and government leaders, the influential and the commoner, individuals and crowds, the sick and the healthy), who had an encounter with Jesus, and were left trying to figure out what to do with it; what to do with Him.

John retold story after story like that because, as you probably remember, his main aim in his Gospel is to convince his readers that Jesus is the Christ, that we might believe in Jesus and have life (20:31). A key for us to grasp, then, is that John didn’t record just any encounters with Jesus. He purposefully focused on those which he believed (under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) best showed the Christness of Jesus.

In other words, remember Grace, John was not primarily writing a historical account of Jesus’ life (like Luke was). He was writing an account of the events in Jesus life that absolutely required a response. And for that reason, to bring it full circle, John records (in our passage for today) yet another example of people encountering Jesus acting in a way that could not be ignored.

To that end, there are two main sections in our passage, and within them, two main groups deciding what to do with Jesus. The first is vs.25-31. In it we find a group of Jerusalemites wondering whether or not Jesus could be the Christ. They debate among themselves and seem to change their answer several times in these few verses. And the second main section is vs.32-36. There we find another group of Jewish religious leaders (the Pharisees), having already made up their mind about Jesus, trying to figure out how to shut Him up. What’s remarkable is that in the midst of both sections, in the midst of the musings of both the crowds and leaders, Jesus chimed in and bluntly addressed their misunderstandings. Neither the crowds nor the leaders seemed to appreciate what Jesus said to them and so most of both groups were left in their state of confusion.

In all of this, Grace Church, the two main—even if familiar—things for us to grasp from this passage are that (1) Jesus is the Christ and (2) having encountered Him we must either accept or reject Him as the Christ.

Our passage records real, historical events. But insodoing, it also provides us with an enacted prophecy. That is, practically, it gives us a living picture of what it looks like to be confronted with the person and message of Jesus, and to have to decide what to do with Him; whether to receive Him on His terms and pay the accompanying cost, or to turn away from Him and go our own way, trusting in our own sense of things, and banking our eternal lives on our own merit. In other words, in a very real sense, this passage is like a mirror for all of us to look into as we consider our response to Jesus. Will we respond as the crowds and leaders did? Or will we respond in genuine faith? If that sounds serious, it is. Let’s pray.

As I’ve mentioned many times already during our time in John’s Gospel, everyone who encountered Jesus had to figure out what to do with Him. As Jesus taught or performed some sign, it always seemed to far exceeded the expectations of whoever was near. There was something different about Him, but what exactly that was very few people could say for sure.

In our passage for this morning, we get to look in as two familiar groups debated this question among themselves—the Jewish crowds (“the people of Jerusalem”) and the Jewish leaders (the Pharisees”). The crowds wondered if He was indeed the Christ and the leaders wondered how they could silence Him. Let’s first consider the crowds and the three answers they came up with concerning whether or not Jesus was the Christ.

Both the main question of the crowds and their first answer are found in vs.25-26. As the crowds gathered in Jerusalem during the Feast of Booths, Jesus was the talk of the town. Word spread that He’d come to the feast and was teaching in the Temple. Word also spread that Jesus was teaching in a way that amazed His hearers and baffled the Sadducees.

25 Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom they [the religious leaders] seek to kill? 26 And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him!

Jesus had everyone on edge. No one knew what to do with Him. The crowds wondered, “Our leaders want to kill Him, but at the same time they’re allowing Him to teach in the most public and significant place possible, during one of the three most important feasts we have. Why would they allow Him to get up front and go on like that if they weren’t afraid of Him? If any of us tried that, we’d be censured and removed immediately; and probably worse. Jesus’ boldness and the leaders’ cowardice make us wonder, “26 Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ?”

The question forced upon the crowds (by Jesus’ teaching and courage, and the leaders’ cowardly response) was: Can it be that this is the Christ? Is He the one we’ve been waiting for? And the answer they gave here was, “Maybe?!”. He could be? He might be?

The heart of this answer seems to be rooted in the fact that nothing about Jesus, His teaching, His actions, or the response He got from others made sense according to any categories they had. They just didn’t have a place to put this man, so they reasoned, “Maybe He’s the Christ?”.

In the next few verses, however, their answer changed a bit. They seemed to move from “Maybe” to “Maybe not”.

27 But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.”

The prevailing notion among the Jewish people, for reasons that certainly make some sense, was that the Christ, when He came, would come in an entirely unmistakable way. This seems to come from a misreading of a couple of OT texts which were subsequently canonized in public opinion. It was false, obviously, but the crowds believed it nonetheless. And so, consequently, they believed that having to wonder whether or not a person was the Christ, was a good indication that he wasn’t.

In addition, the things they thought they knew about Jesus (where He was from and who His parents were), didn’t mesh with what they thought they knew about the Christ promises of the OT.

Therefore, since they thought they knew Jesus’ unimpressive hometown, family, and background, and because He hadn’t already provided the kind of decisive military victory they expected, the crowds were skeptical.

So was Jesus the Christ? Maybe not, the crowds thought. He didn’t come in the manner He was “supposed” to come in. And He didn’t come from where He was “supposed” to come from. Whatever else there is in Him that points to Him being the Christ, those things seem to shut the door on that possibility, so “maybe not”.

Apparently having heard the murmuring, or perhaps from supernaturally knowing their hearts, Jesus addressed the faulty thinking of the crowds.

28 So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I come from. But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. 29 I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.”

Jesus basically told the crowds they were wrong on just about every level. “Whatever prophesies you think you understand, you clearly don’t, since I am the Christ. You think you know that my father is Joseph, but you are mistaken. My Father is the God of heaven and earth. You think you know where I’m from, but you don’t. You think I am from Nazareth, but you are wrong about that. I was born in Bethlehem (according to the Christ-prophecy of Micah 5:2). More significantly still, however, I am from the Father’s side before all time. My true home is heaven. And most significantly of all, you are wrong about the one thing you think you know with absolute certainty, that you know God.” If anything, they knew God, they believed. They were the offspring of Abraham, the chosen people of God. But Jesus drew an absolute, unmistakable, undeniable line in the sand: You either accept me as the Christ or you do not know God, for God is the one who sent Me.

The question was, “Can it be that this is the Christ?”. And the second answer the crowds gave was

“Maybe not”. And to that Jesus replied, “You think I might not be the Christ, but that’s really because you do not know me or my Father who sent me.”

What ominous words those are. Belief, Grace Church, even entirely sincere belief, even entirely zealous belief, even to-the-core-of my being belief, in something other than God as He really is, is entirely useless. Learn from the crowds to check not only the sincerity of your belief, but the object of it as well.

All of that led to the religious leaders attempting to arrest Jesus. Look at v.30.

30 So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.

Whether the “they” in v.30 refers to some in the crowds or to the religious leaders/officers of v.32 is not certain. Either way, the main point is that there was an attempt to arrest Jesus and it was unsuccessful.

What’s more, the text tells us the reason it was unsuccessful: Because, as we’ve seen before, “his hour had not yet come.” The Father simply would not allow Jesus to be captured (or crucified) before the fullness of time. The passage doesn’t tell us what exactly prevented them from doing so in the earthly realm, only that their plans were thwarted by the perfect, uninterruptable, heavenly plans of God. Let us marvel, once again, at the mighty hand of God, Grace Church. Truly, He holds kings and nations in the palm of His hand (Proverbs 21:1)!

And this act of divine sovereignty, the God-appointed inability of those in power to arrest Jesus, led the crowd to rethink their answer yet again. Whether they recognized the hand of God in it or were simply baffled by the entirely inexplicable response of the authorities, the crowd changed their answer from maybe, to maybe not, to probably. That’s the essence of v.31.

31 Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”

Here they reasoned that whatever else we think of Jesus, it’s almost impossible to imagine someone coming along who could say and do greater things than Him. If He’s not the Christ, then we simply cannot fathom what the Christ will be like. Is He the Christ? Probably?

The scales seem to be tipping for some within the crowd, but this just doesn’t sound like the genuine, God-given, spiritual-eyes opened, faith God uses as a conduit for saving grace. The text explicitly says that “many of the people believed in Him,” but there’s also an undeniable hint of doubt in their belief in Jesus as the Christ. When it comes to faith in Jesus as Savior, probably-level belief isn’t sufficient.

It is important, then, to settle on a straight-forward understanding of genuine, saving faith. Consider this historically rooted answer to that crucial question (Ligonier).

When the Protestant Reformers considered the question of saving faith, they found in Scripture three aspects that are essential for true faith. The first of these is Noticias, which is the intellectual content of what we believe. Saving faith is faith in the person and work of Christ, so we must know something about Jesus and what He has done if we are to have actual faith in Him. …

The second component of saving faith is assensus, or belief that the content of the Christian gospel is true. It is possible to know something and not believe it is true…But as the Christian faith is dependent on the historical reality of things such as the resurrection of Jesus (1 Cor. 15:17), we must not only know that Christianity proclaims the content of Christ’s historical resurrection, but we must also believe that the resurrection happened (Rom. 10:9).

Finally, saving faith includes fiducia, which is placing trust in the One revealed in the content that is believed to be true. Knowing what God has revealed and believing it to be true is a good thing… [However,] we also need to place our trust in Christ personally to save us…We must place our lives in His hands, pledging ourselves to follow Him no matter the cost.

Perhaps some from the crowd truly believed (had saving faith) in Jesus. But saving faith is absolutely not “maybe-faith,” “maybe not-faith,” or even “probably-faith.” It is a graciously given, emphatic “Yes, with all my mind and heart-faith.” Having that kind of faith does not mean we will never have questions or doubts about certain aspects of the Christian life, but it does mean that when it comes to the central question of Jesus as the Christ, God has granted us genuine trust and belief.

And that leads us to the second section and the second group who was trying to decide what to do with Jesus.

The crowds wondered if Jesus was the Christ. The second group, the Pharisees, had already concluded that He wasn’t. Therefore, their “what to do with Jesus” question was a bit different. Rather than trying to figure out His nature, they were trying to figure out how to silence Him from continuing to speak His “lies”.

In this instance, the impetus for their response seems to be controlling the crowd. Like all leaders who fear man more than God, their biggest concern was with losing the support of the crowds; not leading them well or honoring God.

32 The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about him, and the chief priests and Pharisees sent officers to arrest him.

Having Jesus as a significant topic of public discussion was one level of undesirable for the religious leaders. Having Jesus being discussed as the Christ was entirely different and unacceptable level of undesirable. In fact, it was so undesirable that two otherwise warring groups, the Pharisees (explicitly named) and the Sadducees (chief priests and officers), came together in an attempt to shut Jesus down! It’s hard to overstate how significant this is. Seen in proper context, it’s even more shocking than us imagining the Republicans and Democrats coming together against a common enemy today. It was also a foreshadowing of what Jesus knew was fast approaching.

Knowing that His time was just months away,

33 Jesus then said, “I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me.

While no one seemed to understand what Jesus meant by this (which we see in vs.35-36), they must have thought of Jesus leaving as a good thing, “That’s great. Then we won’t have to deal with You any longer.” Far from a good thing, however, it would mark the end of the most significant blessing the world has known.

34 You will seek me and you will not find me. Where I am you cannot come.”

There is both a literal and a spiritual sense in which Jesus’ words were true. Jesus was going to the cross for the sins of the world and then to the right hand of God in His glorified, resurrected body. Literally, no one, not even His closest disciples were able to join Him there. Only Jesus alone could serve as a sufficient, sacrifice for sin. Likewise, the right hand of God is reserved for the Son of God alone. What’s more, once He ascended, no one on earth would be able to find Him. The empty tomb would remain a mystery for many.

Spiritually, horrifically, many of those who were persecuting Jesus, would never be able to find or join Jesus in the Father’s presence and pleasure. That is, those who persevered in their unbelief would remain condemned by God for their sin. They would only know God’s everlasting torment. Spiritually, they could not come with Jesus to heaven in their unbelief.

And so it is for us, Grace. God is patient. That’s the only reason we don’t go straight to hell. But God’s patience will eventually run out. At some point, at a time unknown to us, we will die and our chance to find Jesus and go with Him to where He is will run out. Today is the day of salvation. Turn to Him today and call those around you to do the same. He will receive you and forgive you and set His love upon you if you will surrender yourself in faith.

Still confused, however,

35 The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? Does he intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks? 36 What does he mean by saying, ‘You will seek me and you will not find me,’ and, ‘Where I am you cannot come’?”

Thinking only literally, and poorly at that, they just couldn’t imagine anything other than Jesus trying to slip away from them before they could get their hands on Him. Oh, the devastating effect of sin and spiritual blindness!

What we have in this passage is a Man marked for death, yet unafraid, encountering a group of men who have the authority to kill, but are terrified. The crowds were amazed by this incongruity—the fearlessness of Jesus (the condemned) and the cowardice of the Pharisees (the condemners).

Jesus is the Christ and, therefore, it is right to trust in Him as such. Many among the crowds and religious leaders refused to do so and therein remained condemned and unable to follow Jesus into the Father’s blessing. For all who did (and do yet today), they would know persecution and difficulty, even as Jesus did. A life lived by faith in Jesus Christ, therefore, means living a life of courage, fearing not he who can destroy the body, but only He who can destroy body and soul in hell. And that kind of courage comes from the perfect love of God for us and in us.

For those who are not yet trusting in Jesus, seek the love of God in Jesus. And for those who are trusting in Jesus and longing for the courage live entirely in light of that, seek the love of God in Jesus (1 John 4:17-18). It is the love of God that frees us from fear and fixes our eyes on Jesus Christ, the greatest treasure. It is in that love alone that we will be able to say that to live is Christ and to die is gain! It is in the love of God that we will be able to break from the unbelief and unbelieving unbelief of those in this passage and receive Jesus as the Christ, following Him wherever He leads and whatever it costs, straight into the Father’s everlasting joy.

John 7:14-24 About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. 15 The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?” 16 So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. 17 If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. 18 The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. 19 Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?” 20 The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?” 21 Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel at it. 22 Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. 23 If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man’s whole body well? 24 Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”

In our passage for this morning, we see the now familiar reality that Jesus consistently taught with a kind of authority that He could only possess if He had been sent by God. Likewise, He made claims about Himself that could only be true if He had come from God. Consequently, the big question that confronted everyone who encountered Jesus was whether or not He was who He said He was. His claims were so big that no one could avoid that question. Those kinds of claims and that question are front and center in our passage.

While teaching in the temple during the Feast of Booths, everyone, including the Jewish leaders, noticed that Jesus taught with insight that seemed to go way beyond His level of education and training. The text says they “marveled” at His “learning”. And that, once again, begged the question of where His learning and authority came from. Was it truly from God or was it demonic?

When questioned in this regard, Jesus provided a series of contrasts between Him and His questioners to explain why they were unwilling—or perhaps unable—to receive Him and His teaching. The two main things for us to get from this passage are: (1) All that Jesus said and did was from the Father, and (2) All who truly seek God will receive Jesus and His teaching. And the main takeaway for us is give ourselves in increasing measure to allowing the words of Jesus to shape every aspect of our lives. To help you see all of that, we’ll look at the context of the scene, the confusion it caused, the claim Jesus made, and the contrasts Jesus provided.

The context of this passage, found in v.14, is pretty simple.

14 About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching.

There are four key components to this context: (1) Jesus was teaching, (2) in the Temple, (3) in the middle of the Feast of Booths, (4) after telling His brothers that He wasn’t going to go. Let’s briefly consider each of those.

The main thing that set everything in motion for this scene is the simple fact that Jesus taught publically. The text doesn’t tell us what Jesus taught, only that He “began teaching” and that whatever He taught caused His hearers to “marvel,” which caused a significant response in them, which gave Jesus the opportunity to teach even more.

The second significant aspect of the context is that Jesus taught in the Temple. This means He taught publically, He taught Jews, He taught formally, and He was invited to teach. That He taught publically was significant for a number of reasons, including the fact that when He was eventually arrested in private, He was able to say, “I have spoken openly to the world. I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all Jews come together. I have said nothing in secret.” (John 18:20). Jesus didn’t teach as one who had anything to hide.

That Jesus taught the Jewish people was another way in which He functioned as the Christ. He was the one God promised to send. And this is especially important in John’s Gospel in that his aim was to help his readers “believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (20:31).

The formality of Jesus teaching in the Temple matters because these weren’t off the cuff remarks He was making. This wasn’t a private, informal conversation He was having with His disciples. He was speaking at a place He knew would put Him under a higher level of scrutiny. Every teacher understands this important distinction. It happens all the time that as I’m hanging out with someone they’ll ask some type of theological question. Of course I never intentionally mislead anyone, but my answers are necessarily more off the cuff and less precise. The level of precision and accountability goes up if we’re meeting for a pre-planned time of discipleship or counsel. And it goes up yet another level when I preach or teach in the worship service or a seminar. Jesus’ teaching was on another level still as it was during a time when every Jew was supposed to be in Jerusalem (more on that in the next point).

And the fact that Jesus taught in the temple means He was invited to teach. Despite looking for some time, I was not able to find a good deal of detail about who was allowed to teach in the temple and when. The one thing I did find, however, was that it required some level of invitation, or at least approval. It would have been a significant leader among the Sadducees (they oversaw the temple, as the Pharisees oversaw the synagogues) who authorized or invited Jesus to teach.

The third contextual component is that Jesus not only (1) taught publically (2) in the Temple, but He did so (3) during one of the three most significant feasts of the Jews, the Feast of Booths (7:2). Again, this aspect of the context is important because it put all Jewish eyes and ears on Jesus. He wouldn’t be able to get out from under anything He said here (which, of course, He didn’t want to) as there were many, many witnesses. His teaching would be firmly fixed in the public record.

Finally, and somewhat curiously, Jesus taught publically, in the temple, during the Feast of Booths, after telling His brothers, “You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast” (7:8). You may remember that Jesus also shared His reasoning with His brother, “For my time has not yet fully come.” His main point, again, was not that He wasn’t going to the feast, but that He wasn’t going as they wanted Him to—fully presenting Himself as the Christ. Teaching as He did was significant, but He did not yet reveal Himself as He would on Palm Sunday, just a few months later.

Again, in considering the context, we’re able to see that whatever Jesus said, He did so in a way that could not be missed. Indeed, it was not missed, as we’ll see in the next point—the confused response of those who heard.

The right response to any and all of Jesus’ teaching for all people is awe, wonder, worship, and obedience. Every time we encounter the words of Jesus, we ought to drop everything, ask the Spirit of God to give us ears to hear, lean way in, and fight to drive it all the way down from our head to our heart to our lives! Grace, it is right to marvel at every word uttered by Jesus, to feel conviction at our failure to fully appreciate it, and to seek to change or lives to match up with it. Would you take a moment to consider your own response to hearing the teaching of Jesus?

Wherever Jesus’ words are in conflict with ours, Jesus’ words need to win every time. Wherever Jesus’ speaks in ways that make us uncomfortable, we need to recalibrate our comfort every time. Wherever Jesus calls us to something that seems difficult or impossible, we need to change what we believe is possible every time. Wherever Jesus’ words make us mad, we need to ask for forgiveness and God’s help to repent every time. Wherever Jesus’ teaching is embarrassing, we need to examine the source of our identity every time. Wherever we’re reluctant to live entirely in light of Jesus’ teaching, we need to confess our idolatry every time. And wherever we find things more desirable or than Jesus’ teaching, we need to fight for an appetite change every time.

While Jesus isn’t with us to teach in the same way as He was in times like John recorded in our passage, He is with us (according to His own words) in an even better way in His Word and Spirit. What should have been true for those who heard Jesus’ temple teaching in John 7:14-24, should be true for you and me whenever we have our daily devotions and when we come to Berea and when we sit under the preaching of the Word.

And yet, as we all know, because of sin, what should be and what is are often out of sync. They are often out of sync for you and me, and they were out of sync for Jesus’ temple audience in this passage. While they did (rightly) marvel (wonder very greatly, greatly admire) in a certain sense at Jesus’ teaching, instead of it leading to repentance, praise, and obedience, it went into a different direction. For the Jews in our passage, their marveling stood in contrast with their expectations, which caused confusion in them. And in their confusion, instead of recalibrating their expectations, they recalibrated their marveling.

15 The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?”

They had already decided that Jesus was trouble. They’d already decided that He was misrepresenting Himself and God. Therefore, they expected Jesus to teach in unconvincing, uninformed, and unscriptural ways. Thus, when He spoke with power and authority, they were confused. But rather than reconsider their notion of Him in light of the profound wisdom and insight with which He taught, they reframed what He taught to fit their misconception of Him. Like the disagreeable teenager or scorned spouse who is hardened to the point that they are entirely committed to the opposite of whatever they hear, the Jews were firmly entrenched in their lies.

Again, the Jews were confused because Jesus’ teaching unexpectedly came across as truly impressive even though they had already concluded that He wasn’t educated or trained enough to say such things. This was not unusual for Jesus. He often got this reaction (as would His disciples after receiving the Spirit).

A little later in chapter seven we’ll see another example of this when men were sent to arrest Jesus.

John 7:45-46 The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” 46 The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!”

In similar fashion Matthew reports on similar “marveling” responses to Jesus’ teaching.

Matthew 7:28-29 And when Jesus finished these sayings [in the Sermon on the Mount], the crowds were astonished at his teaching, 29 for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.

Matthew 13:54 coming to his hometown [Jesus] taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works?

Matthew 22:22 When they [the Pharisees] heard it [Jesus’ teaching on giving to Cesar what is Cesar’s], they marveled. And they left [Jesus] and went away.

Matthew 22:33 And when the crowd heard it [Jesus’ silencing of the false teaching of the Sadducees], they were astonished at his teaching.

In addition, I found six examples in Mark (1:22, 1:27, 6:2, 11:18, 12:17, 15:5) and four more in Luke (4:22, 4:32, 4:36, 20:26) (and I’m sure I missed several). Again, it was a normal occurrence for Jesus to teach in a way that caused His hearers to marvel at its clarity, authority, power, and wisdom, even as it was normal for His hearers to leave confused by the gap between their expectation and the reality they’d just experienced.

The only question, once again, was whether confused people would reconfigure their expectations to match Jesus’ teaching or reconfigure Jesus’ teaching to match their expectations. And that leads to Jesus’ central claim.

In response to their calling Him and His teaching into questions, Jesus upped the stakes even higher. Whatever He’d taught that led to the confused marveling of the Jews, Jesus took it to another level still by claiming that everything He’d said was not His teaching, but that of His Father.

16 So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.

In essence, Jesus told the crowd if they had a problem with His teaching, their real problem was with the Father because it was the Father who sent Him to teach theses exact things. As we’ve seen several times in John’s Gospel, Jesus’ main claim was that He spoke nothing of His own will, but only that of the Father.

This shows up in many ways today too. All religions are not basically the same. There is no such thing as God-honoring generic belief in god. There is no God who is divorced from Jesus. To believe in God is to believe in Jesus. To receive God is to receive Jesus. And to reject Jesus is to reject God.

So, again, what were the Jews supposed to do with this claim? This is, once again, the great question of this passage, of Jesus’ entire ministry, and before us today. Was Jesus truly from God as He claimed, or was He demonic, as the Jews claimed (20)? Our answer to that question will affect every single area of our lives, even into eternity. We need to get this question right, Grace Church. To that end, graciously, throughout the rest of the passage, Jesus provided contrasting proof that He was from God and they were of the demons.

As I just mentioned, confronted with the disbelief of the Jews, Jesus responded by claiming that His teaching was entirely from the Father (in v.16) and then (in vs.17-24) He began contrasting His godliness with the ungodliness of the Jews as proof that He was who He said He was and that their judgment was flawed. As I wrestled through how to best help you all see and apply the contrasts, I decided to frame Jesus’ words in the form of seven questions. I think that will makes His points clearest and the contrast between Him and the Jews sharpest.

Do You Truly Desire the Will of God? (17)

In v.17 Jesus said,

17 If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.

The question aimed at the Jews and embedded in those words is: Do you truly desire the will of God? Jesus did, of course, and so He did and said nothing outside of God’s will. The Jews did not and, therefore, could not recognize the will of God (spoken and modeled by Jesus) when they heard and saw it. The contrast between Jesus and the Jews is first seen in their conflicting wills. And the key here is in recognizing that all who will humble themselves before God will know that Jesus is the Christ.

Deuteronomy 4:29 But from there you will seek the LORD your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Jeremiah 29:13-14 You will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart, 14 I will be found by you, declares the LORD…

Pride blinds, Jesus taught, but humility gives sight. Humble yourself and you will know that Jesus is the Christ.

We find the second contrast in v.18. Again, Jesus is speaking.

18 The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.

And the implied question Jesus posed to the Jews was: Are you after your own glory or Gods?

Jesus sought the glory of God (not His own), proving that He spoke in God’s authority and in truth. In contrast, the Jews sought their own glory and, therefore, spoke on their own authority and in lies.

Third, near and dear to the heart of every Jew was the keeping of the Mosaic law. In that regard, Jesus said,

19 Has not Moses given you the law?” Yet none of you keeps the law.

The question shaping this statement is: Do you keep the law of Moses; the one you speak so highly of and believe you are judging me based on?

The Jews rightly esteemed the law as good and as given by God. Their two main problems, however, were that (1) they misunderstood the law to bring salvation, rather than knowledge of sin and the need for salvation, and (2) they believed they kept the law in a way sufficient to save them.

The irony is that in every way Jesus perfectly kept the law of God as God intended it to be kept, but they condemned Him as having violated it; while in contrast, the Jews misunderstood the law so that they could not truly obey it, and, on top of that, they even violated their own misunderstanding of the law. We’ll see a specific example of this shortly.

The bottom line, Grace, is that none of us has or can perfectly keep the commands of God. We’ve all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. If your hope is in your obedience, you will remain lost. But Jesus came to provide a different path, the path of grace through faith for all who would humbly receive Him.

In the next exchange both Jesus and the Jews speak, and in that we find the fourth contrast.

Why do you seek to kill me?” 20 The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?”

The question Jesus put before the Jews is: Do you bring life or death? God brings life to all who receive Him. He is the Father of life, where the evil one is the father of death. Therefore, all who are truly of God will be life-givers and all who are of the devil will be death-givers.

Again, ironically, both Jesus and the Jews came to bring death. The contrast is in the fact that Jews came to bring Jesus’ death, while Jesus came to offer Himself to death. The Jews would end Jesus’ life, while Jesus would bring life through His death.

The fifth contrast and question are found in v.21.

21 Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel at it.

Jesus’ question was: Are you more interested in seeing party tricks or the power and presence of God? Are you here to see magic or the Christ who came to bring everlasting life? Are you more moved by the signs of God or the Son of God?

Jesus did perform miraculous signs for the glory of God and to validate His ministry. Here He was certainly referring to (based on the next two verses) His healing of the man at the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath (5:1-17). That intrigued the crowds and piqued the interest of the Jewish leaders, but in the end, they despised, disbelieved, and even condemned Him for it. At the same time, the Jewish leaders were largely impotent and dishonored God in their pride and unbelief. Jesus offered Himself to the world in love, but the world was more interested in seeing exciting things than they were in receiving Jesus as the word and salvation of God.

Within the law of Moses are rules concerning the circumcision and Sabbath. And within the NT we see that these two laws in particular get a lot of attention from the Jewish leaders. More often than not, though, they seem to get attention for wrong reasons; principally, that the leaders often lorded a misunderstood and misapplied version of them over the people. With that as a backdrop, we find the sixth contrast in Jesus words in vs.22-23.

22 Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. 23 If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man’s whole body well?

The question Jesus posed in order to provide contrast between Him and his critics was: Is the Sabbath for man or man for the Sabbath? Jesus’ answer was that the Sabbath was for man. It was given by God as a blessing for His people. But the answer of the Jews was the opposite. They’d made the Sabbath into a burden. Jesus, as with all of God’s commands, perfectly kept the Sabbath, but was accused of violating it by healing a man on it. In contrast, the Jewish leaders missed and violated the true meaning of the Sabbath, along with their own (misguided) rules on the Sabbath (by doing the work of circumcision on it).

In pointing out their disobedience and hypocrisy, Jesus was showing once again that He truly was speaking the truth from God, while those accusing Him of being misguided were speaking lies from Satan.

Finally, in v.24, Jesus highlighted the thing that was at the heart of their condemnation of Him in this passage.

24 Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”

The question was: By what standard do you judge the things you speak so forcefully about? What standard are you using to discern whether I speak on behalf of God or not? I am making significant claims to be sure, but by what standard are you evaluating them? How do you decide whether I am telling the truth or not?

Jesus always judges with right judgment (judgment based on a perfect understanding of a person’s heart). But in contrast, the Jewish leaders judge with wrong judgment (judgment based on an imperfect assessment of a person’s appearance). Jesus looks at the heart of a man (whether or not it is filled with love for God and neighbor) while His interlocutors look at the looks of a man (whether or not he meets their external expectations). It was because the leaders were judging by the wrong standard and with flawed insight that they got Jesus so tragically wrong.

May we avoid this same mistake, Grace?! May we make sure to evaluate every person, event, and claim (especially that and those of Jesus) by the right standard—that is, by the Word of God and in humble acknowledgment that our insight is always limited and often flawed.

In the end, the main point Jesus was making, was that despite the insistence of the Jews to the contrary, He was from God, taught the things of God, and lived entirely as God willed. He was with them and taught them, because God had sent Him to do just that. He was there to offer Himself as a ransom for their sins and as the means of reconciliation with God they so desperately needed and could not provide for themselves. Tragically, however, instead of receiving this gracious gift of God, the Jews believed themselves to be in the right and already right with God, and so they judged Jesus wrongly, lived hypocritically, and therein proved that they were not truly of God.

May we learn from their error, may God grant us the ability to see the same tendency in ourselves, and may we look, then, to Jesus as the Christ, the only Son of God, the Savior of the world, and the great longing of every heart? If we will, He will receive us, forgive us, sanctify, preserve, and glorify us when He comes again.