The Witness, the Departure, and the Truth.
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John 8:13-36
John 8:13-36
Vv. 12-13: I AM statements/ witness.
The I AM statements.
The Second of seven great I AM statement found in John.
1) John 6:35.
2) John 8:12.
3) John 10:7-9.
4) John 10:11-14.
5) John 11:25-26.
6) John 14:6.
7) John 15:1, 5.
I AM is the personal name of God.
God revealed Himself to Moses by the name I AM Ex. 3:14
And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”
God is self existent. Rev. 1:8
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
When Jesus identifies Himself as I AM He is definitely claiming His Deity.
The Gospels.
The theme of this Gospel is the Deity of Jesus Christ.
Matthews theme is to present Jesus Christ as Messiah and King.
intended for a Jewish audience showing Jesus as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies.
Marks theme presents Jesus Christ as the Servant.
intended for Roman Christians showing Jesus as the perfect Servant.
Lukes theme presents Jesus Christ as the Perfect Man.
Written as a historical account and gives the biological genealogy of Jesus from His mother Mary, showing Jesus as the perfect Human.
Jesus I AM statement and His illustrations of Himself in the last chapter bring clarity to the Feast of Tabernacles.
Bread of life (Manna)
Living Water (Water from the Rock)
The Light of the World (pillar of Fire)
The witness.
The Jewish court didn't recognise self witness or the witness of one person. Deut. 17:6, 19:15 and Numbers 35:30.
Whoever is deserving of death shall be put to death on the testimony of two or three witnesses; he shall not be put to death on the testimony of one witness.
“One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits; by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established.
Whoever kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death on the testimony of witnesses; but one witness is not sufficient testimony against a person for the death penalty.
Witness of Jesus.
1) Light bears witness of itself.
When its dark you can see lights from far away.
Stars, WWII blackouts.
Vv. 14-18.
2) Judgement.
Jesus doesn't judge by outward appearance and actions but on spiritual truths.
3) John the Baptist.
They already questioned John and he gave witness of Jesus.
John 5:31-35 ““If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true. There is another who bears witness of Me, and I know that the witness which He witnesses of Me is true. You have sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Yet I do not receive testimony from man, but I say these things that you may be saved. He was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light.”
4) Works.
His works bear witness of Him
John 5:36 “But I have a greater witness than John’s; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish—the very works that I do—bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me.”
5) The Father.
The Father Himself bears witness of Jesus.
John 5:37-38 “And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form. But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe.”
The very word of God gave witness to the coming Messiah and testified of Him.
The experts of the Law and Prophets couldn't see the Messiah standing before them.
They claimed to know the Law of God but didn't know the God of the Law.
They knew the Word of God but the Word didn't abide in them because they are of the darkness and not of the light.
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
Where is your Father?
Missing the point.
They wanted to see His Father but they are the ones who claimed to know Him.
They claimed to be children of His Father.
Had they truly know the Father they would have recognized Jesus as the much anticipated Messiah.
Jesus is about to let them know who their father is.
The Departure.
Vv. 21-30.
VS 21. Seek and die in your sins.
They have been seeking the Messiah of their own interpretation.
Are we seeking God or are we seeking a god of our own desires?
God isn't fitting into their preconceived mold.
Why?
Gods plan.
Why do bad things happen?
Why did they want to kill Him?
Why would God allow this?
The wages of sin Rom. 6:23.
The sacrificial system was to point to the the sacrifice needed.
Without the Perfect Man as the Suffering Servant the Son of God the Son of Man to pay the price of atonement with His life there is no salvation.
satan wanted Jesus dead, he wanted to stop His ministry of grace.
God allowed the blinded religious system to be used by satan to kill the Son of Man so that He could bring forth salvation to humanity.
What the enemy intends for evil God uses for good.
Turn to Romans 8:28.
But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.
God uses the enemy to accomplish His will. Romans 8:28-39.
Romans 8:28-35 “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”
Romans 8:36-39 “As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
With His death and resurrection He is before the Father constantly interceding for us while satan is constantly accusing us.
As satan tries to destroy us God uses it to strengthen and grow us.
They have been seeking the Messiah but they will die in their sins.
Beware the self righteous church proclaiming Jesus while leading astray their congregations with their errant doctrine.
They will die looking for the Messiah they delivered to death.
Vv. 22-24.
Suicide.
To the Jew suicide is abhorrent and those that commit suicide went to a place of judgement because they where taught to honor all life.
In their arrogance they didn't believe they will go to a place of judgement.
From earth verses heaven.
Jesus would return to the Father
They would go to judgement.
Jesus was not of this world John 17:14-16
I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
All those that follow the Lord are not citizens of this world.
For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.
When a child of God dies they die in the Lord because they live in the Lord. Rev.14:13
Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ”
“Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.”
They were children of their father satan and so children of this world.
Believer that I AM.
He is italicized in your Bible because the translators put it there to for contextual understanding.
I AM, Jesus is saying they die in their sins because they do not believe He is God.
What are you going to do with Jesus? is He God, if yes do you accept His gift of salvation as a sinner in need of deliverance?
Your eternal residence depends on it.
Who are you?
Vv. 25-30
They are incredulous.
Jesus has plainly stated His deity He has demonstrated His deity yet they reject it and ask for more evidence.
This is the dangers of falling into rituals and systems, you lose your first love.
Some people no matter the evidence presented will not believe.
These very Pharisees will mock Jesus on the cross and seek a sign. Mark 15:31-32
Likewise the chief priests also, mocking among themselves with the scribes, said, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe.”
Even those who were crucified with Him reviled Him.
Jesus reply.
Ive already told you.
I wont tell you more and give you more proof when you don’t receive what I have already presented.
I have a lot to say and judge.
Only God can judge so again He alludes to His deity.
He will save the rest of His comments on them for when they meet at their judgement.
How done are you when the Son of God says something like that?
The Father is real and Jesus presents the truths He has seen and heard from the Father to the world.
Lost.
Once again their blindness kept them from seeing the light.
Lifting up the Son of Man.
This has two meanings.
One, lifting up in crucifixion.
Two, lifting up in exaltation and glorification.
These two are often combined and why we can look at the cross with bitter sweet adoration.
His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, would reveal the Messiah to the Jewish nation.
We see this partly fulfilled now with our Messianic brothers and sisters.
the rest will come in the Tribulation.
The centurion at the cross proclaimed His deity. Mark 15:39
So when the centurion, who stood opposite Him, saw that He cried out like this and breathed His last, he said, “Truly this Man was the Son of God!”
Jesus again makes an I AM statement.
He didn't do any of this of Himself but from the Father for us.
For those who reject Jesus and live in their sins will die in their sins.
The Truth.
Vv. 31-36.
Jesus has set us free.
We are born into bondage and slavery to sin.
When Jesus became sin and died our sin died with Him.
If we as Christians die in Him our sins are paid for and we are born into eternity with Him.
Warren Wiersbe puts it this way.
When we obey His Word, we grow in spiritual knowledge; and as we grow in spiritual knowledge, we grow in freedom from sin. Life leads to learning, and learning leads to liberty.
Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 322.
Their Delusion.
Jesus has them so off kilter that they have forgotten their own history.
They've been in bondage before, and are currently under the iron rule of Rome.
Again they miss interpret the spiritual for the physical.
When a heart of stone has blinded them to spiritual things no amount of explanation will work.
Only God can change a heart of stone. Ezekiel 36:26
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Son of man, your brethren, your relatives, your countrymen, and all the house of Israel in its entirety, are those about whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, ‘Get far away from the Lord; this land has been given to us as a possession.’ Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Although I have cast them far off among the Gentiles, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet I shall be a little sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone.” ’ Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “I will gather you from the peoples, assemble you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.” ’ And they will go there, and they will take away all its detestable things and all its abominations from there. Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God. But as for those whose hearts follow the desire for their detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their deeds on their own heads,” says the Lord God.
Slave vs son.
A slave is a servant to the master.
Their place in house isn't assured.
The son is part of the family and his future is assured.
Isaac and Ishmael.
one born of sin and one born of promise.
Only the sinless Son of God can free us from the bondage of sin.
Those who live continually in their sin are in bondage to the sin.
Jesus has set us free.
God gives us more than we can handle to keep our reliance on Him.
God always gives us a way out of our temptation. James 4:7
Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
Paul with his thorn. 2 Corinthians 12:8-10
Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Humility brings perspective, perspective reveals our weakness, our weakness reveals His perfect strength.
Stay humble my friends!