Which One Is Yours? | John 8:38–47

Which One Is Yours? | John 8:33–47

Opening Remarks:

We’re back in the book of John chapter this morning after a few weeks off. We’ve already looked at John 8 a couple of times, but as a reminder it’s essentially a conversation between Jesus and a crowd of people in the Temple the day after the Feast of Tabernacles. And the Pharisees seem to be the primary target audience.

Jesus has talked about how He’s the light of the world.

He has talked about how the truth makes us free.

And last time we saw how some of the people in the crowd were still on the outside looking in. They thought they were people of faith, but they were bound by sin and didn’t even know it.

Our text today is a continuation of this conversation that sees Jesus trying to reveal to the Pharisees that they’re not what they think they are.

READ John 8:33-49

The subject of the conversation has turned to parentage.

The Pharisees say, “Our father is Abraham. Therefore, we are God’s children.”

But Jesus says, “You can say that, but let’s look at the evidence.”

If you want to know who someone belongs to, look at the evidence.

If you have children and have ever been in public with your kids and maybe some of their friends, you’ve probably been asked that question, “Which One Is Yours?”

That’s the idea today. If someone looked at your life, could they tell who your Father is?

TITLE: Which One Is Yours?

PRAY

Introduction:

The first Sunday morning series I preached as Pastor of Eastside was the book of 1 John. I called it “Family Traits” because John was writing to God’s children, and challenging them to live in such a way that their lives reflected to whom they belonged.

It’s called Family Resemblance. Families resemble each other in their:

Looks – Hair color, height, facial features

Speech – Words used…Pronunciation…Volume

Skills – Music…Trade skills…

Personality – Optimists, pessimists…Critical…Happy…

You can typically tell someone’s parentage based on their traits.

If someone looks nothing like their parents, you start to wonder.

We know a family, all normal height, two children just average height, but one son is 6’11. He’s literally a foot taller than anyone else in his family.

That leaves you scratching your head. Because children normally reflect their parents.

And that’s the conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees.

They say in vs. 33, “We be Abraham’s seed”

In vs. 39 “Abraham is our father”

In vs. 41 “We have one Father, one God.”

They adamantly claim to belong to God through Abraham.

This is both a physical and spiritual claim

Physical - Through Abraham’s seed, Jewish heritage, their genetics came from Abraham

Spiritual - The Jews were God’s people, so the Pharisees think they automatically inherited God because of their physical and genetic lineage

But they didn’t understand that you can’t inherit a relationship with God through genetics:

Your family can’t make you a Christian

Being American doesn’t make you saved

You grandfather going to Heaven won’t take you there

1 Corinthians 15:50 “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.”

Salvation is not gained through physical means. It is an individual choice to place your faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ, who died to pay for your sins.

Just because someone claims to have a relationship with God the Father doesn’t make it true.

Any of us can say anything we want to say about ourselves.

Especially in this day and age. People claim to be whatever gender they want and no one is allowed to dispute it.

But what does the evidence say?

I can say I’m tall, but what does the tape measure show?

I can say I’m patient, but what does my driving reveal?

I can say I’m a good husband, but what do my interactions with my wife show?

And that’s how Jesus deals with the claims of these folks who say they belong to God because of Abraham.

But what does the evidence say?

I. God’s Children Will Look Like Their Father

The book of John is all about confirming that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

You may be getting tired of hearing it week in and week out, but the purpose of this Gospel was so John could confirm that Jesus is the Son of God to the readers.

And you think, “Why does it matter so much?”

Because if He is not the Son of God, then we are in big trouble.

We need Jesus to be God because of the mess sin has left us in.

The only One capable of fixing our sin problem is God Himself.

We need Jesus to be the Son of God and we need to hear it over and over.

It’s not tedious. It’s necessary.

From the moment Jesus showed up, He was making these claims. And the Pharisees were not happy about.

Remember John 5:18 “Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.”

But understand, it wasn’t just what Jesus said about Himself. He didn’t just say He was God. He gave evidence.

Vs. 38 - The way He spoke revealed who He belonged to

Vs. 40 - Jesus spoke the truth in love to help them, which was evidence of Him representing God

Vs. 46 - Jesus’ life was sinless, which should have been all the evidence they needed

Jesus wasn’t just saying God was His Father. He was proving it with the evidence of His life.

And we could go back to the beginning of John and show all the ways Jesus proved it over and over.

Jesus looked like His Father. He was the perfect representation of God on earth.

He came with all power - He walked on water and fed 15-20k people with 5 loaves and 2 fish. Who could do that but God?

He came with all wisdom - He proved that when He wrote words in the sand after a woman was caught in adultery and the Pharisees had no answer.

He came with great compassion - He proved that when He stopped at a well and spoke to a Samaritan woman who everyone else had written off.

If you had seen Jesus, you got a glimpse of God Himself. Everything He did looked like His Father.

He came revealing the Father to us. And in doing so, He left us a pattern by which we are to live.

Jesus looks His Father. And we, as believers, are to look like Jesus. Do we?

If you belong to God, your live will look like Jesus. In what ways? Just from this text:

You will not be content to dwell in sin or continuously indulge in it.

You will not close up your ears to truth when it’s preached and taught.

You will will not hate those who give you truth.

You will show compassion to others who aren’t quite where you are.

You will grant forgiveness to those who have wronged you.

Jesus came and looked like His Father. How much does your life look like God the Father?

I. God’s Children Will Look Like Their Father

II. Those Who Are Not God’s Children Will Look Like Their Father

Vs. 38 - Jesus makes it clear that the evidence in the Pharisees’ lives point to a different Father.

He says, “I do things one way, but your deeds are so different than mine that no one is going to accuse of us having the same Father.”

Bro. Sam Davison said it this way, “We may not know who your dad is, but we almost certainly know who he is not.”

“You can claim God, but nothing about your life points to Him as your Father.”

Jesus’ words of confrontation get a little uncomfortable.

Vs. 44 - The Pharisees were so unlike God the Father that the only assumption was that they had a different Father. And Jesus says, “Your actions are so unlike God the Father that I can only conclude that you don’t belong to Him. And the opposite of God is Satan. So you must take your cues from Satan.”

Why would He say that? Look at the evidence.

Vs. 40 - They wanted to see Jesus dead. That sounds like something the Devil would want.

Vs. 40 - They refused to give an ear to truth. The Devil hates truth. He is the opposite of truth. He loves lies. From the lies He told himself in Heaven that he could be like God to the lies he told Eve in the garden to the lies he still tells people today, he is the father of lying.

Vs. 41 - Some believe this was their way of casting aspersions on the birth of Jesus.

You know they’d done their homework about Him. I imagine there were some that remembered His mother Mary becoming pregnant before marriage.

So they seek to slander the character of Jesus Christ. The Devil has been trying to get people to doubt God’s character since Eden.

Vs. 42 - A sign of a follower of God is love for Jesus. You can’t say you love God and not love His Son.

There are countless religions who claim to follow the one true God, but they don’t submit to Jesus Christ. I know this could be offensive, but you can’t follow God the Father and reject God the Son.

Jesus said, “No man cometh unto the Father but by me.”

Satan is convincing billions of people that the path to God can bypass Jesus, but that’s a lie from the father of lies.

Vs. 43 - They purposely didn’t listen so they wouldn’t understand truth.

Vs. 44 - They were full of hatred and dishonesty. Once again, we see from Christ’s own lips that a sign of the Devil is to hate people enough to want them dead and to tell continuous lies in order to deceive people.

Vs. 45 - They refused to believe. That’s a sign of Satan’s influence in our lives. He doesn’t want us to believe God and get saved and live for Him. He wants us to be deceived and believe our own truth and miss out on what God offers us.

Vs. 47 - The most practical evidence of someone who is more like Satan than God is their refusal to hear God’s truth. An openness and obedience to God’s Word won’t be found in the life of someone who is more like the Devil than God.

They told themselves and Jesus and everyone that would listen that their parentage was God the Father.

“We be Abraham’s seed. Abraham is our father. We have one Father, even God.”

But Jesus, “You can say that all day, but what does the evidence say?”

If we stop listening to your words and look at your deeds, we come to a different conclusion./

Illustration: Which one is yours?

Tall and fair skinned - Colin Van Zee

Someone with dark skin - Blessing

Jase

Walking through the store with these three

Start talking to a stranger

Part way through the conversation we talk about kids

Person asks, “Which one is yours?”

We might start to think, “That’s kind of a dumb question. It’s obvious.”

But what if they asked and I pointed to Collin? They’d be surprised.

What if I pointed to Blessing? They wouldn’t just be surprised. They’d laugh at me.

Here’s why: Because it doesn’t matter what I say if the evidence overwhelmingly says something else.

One more time: It doesn’t matter what I say if the evidence overwhelmingly says something else.

Which is why if I point to Jase, no one will doubt it. Because my claims that he’s my son will be supported by the evidence.

(Send back to seats)

And this illustration makes this point today:

III. You Can Claim God As Your Father, But The Answer Is Self-Evident.

Based on the evidence of your life, who do you belong to?

According to Jesus, it is self-evident.

It’s not about what you say.

It’s not about what your parents were.

It’s not about good intentions.

According to Jesus, the evidence will be revealed in our lives.

Our lives either reflect God the Father through the example of Jesus Christ, or our actions reflect the Devil Himself.

I know this is old-fashioned preaching. I know people don’t like to hear about the Devil anymore. I know this isn’t the way to build a church in this modern culture. But I am simply conveying to you a message that Jesus felt the religious folks of His day needed to hear, and if He said, we need to hear it and it’s still true.

Our actions either reflect Jesus or the Devil, and we need to take that seriously.

Our words reflect reflect one or the other

Our attitudes reflects Heaven or Hell

Our engagement in Gossip or Criticism reflects God or the Devil

Our telling of the truth reflects one or the other

Our entertainment reflects one or the other

Our social media reflects one or the other

Jesus pointed to specific deeds in their lives and said, “This is the evidence I’m interested in.

IV. Two Applications:

Salvation - Salvation is not simply verified by profession. Salvation is verified by proof.

I’m not saying you have to prove it to me.

I’m saying, we must each examine our lives to make sure there is proof.

It is our responsibility to examine ourselves.

2 Corinthians 13:5 “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves.”

Philippians 2:12 Says, “…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”

Which means let the evidence show it. Don’t just say it, prove it.

By the way, this isn’t saying that works have any part in salvation. They don’t.

Ephesians 2:8–10 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

Salvation is by faith alone. If we could earn it, we’d boast about it.

But Ephesians 2:10 states, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

Works don’t save us, but works reveal that we’ve been saved. They are the evidence.

And if there isn’t evidence in your life, then your parentage, which father you belong to, is in question. Examine yourself. If you’ve never trusted God by faith in Jesus Christ, then you must, today. And then the evidence will be clear. Because the Holy Spirit will take up residence in your life and fill you and give you the fruit of His working. The evidence won’t have to be faked. You won’t have to pretend. If it’s real, it will happen.

Christian - The evidence will be there if you are a believer, but it’s possible to quench the Holy Spirit and reflect the Devil more than your Father.

This can happen in a believer’s life.

We grow complacent.

We stop caring.

We stop trying.

Rather than allow the fruit of the Holy Spirit to flow from us, we live in the flesh.

And our words and attitudes and interactions and witness become more like the Devil than our Father.

James 3:13–18 “Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.”

What James wrote means that even God’s people can discard the work of the Spirit in their lives and revert to the work of the Devil in their lives.

Which father does your life reflect?

If your life reflects the traits of the Devil, you either belong to Him or you’re choosing, as a Christian, to follow his example. And the judgment for choosing the Devil over the Father will be eternally severe.

But your life reflects God through the example of Jesus Christ, then look at the kind of life Jesus says will be the result.

John 8:49-50

If you want to honor your Father and bring Him glory and impact your judgment seat experience, choose to live like Jesus Christ, the reflection of God the Father.

If you hate someone, that’s not like your Father.

If you close your ears to truth, that doesn’t look like your Father.

If you don’t like to be around God’s family, that’s not like God the Father.

If you abide in anger continually, that’s not Father-like.

If there’s enough evidence against you, are you sure you belong to God’s family?

If you don’t belong to God as your Father, who do you belong to?

Bro. Davison, “We may not know who your dad is, but we almost certainly know who he is not.”

I don’t know about you, but I want to live in such a way that if someone were to ask God the Father, “Which one is yours?” I would want Him to be able to say, “Jason Jett,” and not have the reaction be, “Seriously? Jason? He looks nothing like you?”

I would want the reaction to be, “Oh, Jason. I should have known. Based on His words and his attitude and the things he gets excited about, no surprise there.”

Would that be God the Father’s response about your life? I pray so.