Like Father, Like Son

Introduction

Illustration: Have you ever been in a circle of people where everyone has to tell the rest of the group a little bit about themselves? How many of you hate that sort of thing?

Describing ourselves can be difficult. Heck even really knowing yourself can be difficult, but even if you have a pretty good idea of what sort of person you are and what’s important to you it’s difficult to sum up your nature in a short statement.

Jesus however is a lot smarter than us. So we shouldn’t be surprised to learn that He is very good at summing up His nature in a short statement. Yet He is also a lot greater than us, so His nature is a lot more complex. Hence when John spends so much time in His gospel sharing the things Jesus said about Himself. Today’s passage is one such moment where Jesus tells us “a little about Himself.” Let’s look at what Jesus says in John 8:12-59. It’s a bit of a lengthy passage, but it’s all one theme and I didn’t want to lose the bigger picture by splitting it up.

John 8:12–59 CSB

Jesus spoke to them again: “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.” So the Pharisees said to him, “You are testifying about yourself. Your testimony is not valid.” “Even if I testify about myself,” Jesus replied, “my testimony is true, because I know where I came from and where I’m going. But you don’t know where I come from or where I’m going. You judge by human standards. I judge no one. And if I do judge, my judgment is true, because it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. Even in your law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true. I am the one who testifies about myself, and the Father who sent me testifies about me.” Then they asked him, “Where is your Father?” “You know neither me nor my Father,” Jesus answered. “If you knew me, you would also know my Father.” He spoke these words by the treasury, while teaching in the temple. But no one seized him, because his hour had not yet come. Then he said to them again, “I’m going away; you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I’m going, you cannot come.” So the Jews said again, “He won’t kill himself, will he, since he says, ‘Where I’m going, you cannot come’?” “You are from below,” he told them, “I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. Therefore I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.” “Who are you?” they questioned. “Exactly what I’ve been telling you from the very beginning,” Jesus told them. “I have many things to say and to judge about you, but the one who sent me is true, and what I have heard from him—these things I tell the world.” They did not know he was speaking to them about the Father. So Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own. But just as the Father taught me, I say these things. The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what pleases him.” As he was saying these things, many believed in him. Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you continue in my word, you really are my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” “We are descendants of Abraham,” they answered him, “and we have never been enslaved to anyone. How can you say, ‘You will become free’?” Jesus responded, “Truly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. A slave does not remain in the household forever, but a son does remain forever. So if the Son sets you free, you really will be free. I know you are descendants of Abraham, but you are trying to kill me because my word has no place among you. I speak what I have seen in the presence of the Father; so then, you do what you have heard from your father.” “Our father is Abraham,” they replied. “If you were Abraham’s children,” Jesus told them, “you would do what Abraham did. But now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You’re doing what your father does.” “We weren’t born of sexual immorality,” they said. “We have one Father—God.” Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, because I came from God and I am here. For I didn’t come on my own, but he sent me. Why don’t you understand what I say? Because you cannot listen to my word. You are of your father the devil, and you want to carry out 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 tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Who among you can convict me of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? The one who is from God listens to God’s words. This is why you don’t listen, because you are not from God.” The Jews responded to him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you’re a Samaritan and have a demon?” “I do not have a demon,” Jesus answered. “On the contrary, I honor my Father and you dishonor me. I do not seek my own glory; there is one who seeks it and judges. Truly I tell you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” Then the Jews said, “Now we know you have a demon. Abraham died and so did the prophets. You say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham who died? And the prophets died. Who do you claim to be?” “If I glorify myself,” Jesus answered, “my glory is nothing. My Father—about whom you say, ‘He is our God’—he is the one who glorifies me. You do not know him, but I know him. If I were to say I don’t know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him, and I keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad.” The Jews replied, “You aren’t fifty years old yet, and you’ve seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.” So they picked up stones to throw at him. But Jesus was hidden and went out of the temple.

Easily three or four sermons could be written about this passage, breaking it down into its smaller ideas. But like I said I wanted to keep the bigger picture. Because all of this fits together into one theme very neatly. The whole thing is about Jesus answering the question, “who are you?” And how does He answer that question? What do His answers mean for us? That’s what we’ll be looking into today. We will see that first Jesus is the light by which we know the truth, and yet at the same time that Jesus is the truth Himself. We will also see that Jesus is the only true Son of God, and it’s only through Him that we can be made free and adopted as children of God. Finally we will see that Jesus boldly claims to be God Himself, but backs up those claims and gives us no choice but to acknowledge who He is and worship Him.

Jesus is Truth

Illustration: Getting wood from the shed in the dark, the fear the uncertainty

Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like none of us like trying to do things in the dark. And that’s in familiar territory. Much worse if you’re somewhere you don’t know as well or you’re nervous for some other reason. When we can see things clearly it gives us a sense of calm and peace, unless there’s something to actually be afraid of. That’s part of the reason we’re all glad that the days are getting longer. So that the sun will shine longer and we will be able to see more clearly for longer.

Darkness you see is all about concealment, secrets, lies. Light is all about openess, honesty, and truth. That’s the way that the Bible uses those images as well, and trust me none of the writers of Scripture likes and uses this image as much as the Beloved disciple, our pal John. For those joining us from Burtts Corner we have been as a church exploring the Gospel according to John at a nice slow pace and asking how God through this book is teaching us to be better disciples who make disciples. To give you an idea of how slow paced we’ve been going we started this series in September and we’re still in chapter 8. From my conversations with Dan I get the impresstion that you guys are familiar with this sort of breakneck speed.

In any case, John the Apostle both in his letters and in his gospel uses the image of Jesus as light a lot, probably because He heard Jesus use that image frequently. In fact the prologue of John’s gospel early on uses this image in John 1:4

John 1:4 CSB

In him was life, and that life was the light of men.

What does John mean by this, and what does Jesus mean by calling Himself the light of the world? Well as I already alluded to it is by light that we are able to see the truth. The primary source of literal light on the earth is the Sun. Every other light pales in comparison. By the light of the sun we see the world around us for what it truly is. In darkness we can’t see the world as it is. Jesus is using this earthly image to express a Spiritual truth, as He so often does. What is the primary source of Spiritual light? The Son, S-O-N. In this case there really isn’t any other light. By the light of Jesus we see the Spiritual world for what it truly is. Without Him we can’t see the truth at all, but with Him we know the truth.

This is what Jesus is getting at when He calls Himself the light of the world. At first glance it seems like Jesus is about to give a speech about being the light of the world and instead gets rudely interrupted by the Pharisees getting Him off topic, but I don’t think that’s the case. Actually I think their conversation stays very much on topic. Let’s take a look at verses 12 to 19:

John 8:12–19 CSB

Jesus spoke to them again: “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.” So the Pharisees said to him, “You are testifying about yourself. Your testimony is not valid.” “Even if I testify about myself,” Jesus replied, “my testimony is true, because I know where I came from and where I’m going. But you don’t know where I come from or where I’m going. You judge by human standards. I judge no one. And if I do judge, my judgment is true, because it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. Even in your law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true. I am the one who testifies about myself, and the Father who sent me testifies about me.” Then they asked him, “Where is your Father?” “You know neither me nor my Father,” Jesus answered. “If you knew me, you would also know my Father.”

Jesus says that He is the Light of the world and then the Pharisees accuse Him of testifying about Himself leading to a conversation about truth. And that’s the point. The light is how we know the truth, and Jesus is that light. They think they’ve got Him in a “gotcha moment,” maybe even thinking of what He Himself said in John 5:31

John 5:31 CSB

“If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true.

But I think they’ve actually just played into Jesus hand, giving Him the chance to once again emphasize His close relationship with the Father, who is the second witness Jesus needs to back up His testimony. Not even that He needs a second witness. As the Light of the World who is more qualified to testify to Himself? How do we know the sun is shining? Because we can see at all. How do we know the Son is the light of the world? Because by Him we can truly see.

And being able to see the truth is freeing, isn’t it? The difference between stumbling slowly in the dark being nervous about every unclear shape and every strange sound and moving confidently in the light is all you need to remember to understand the connection between Jesus saying He’s the light of the world and then saying in verses 31-32

John 8:31–32 CSB

Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you continue in my word, you really are my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

The truth will set you free. Free to live out of the darkness into God’s brilliant light. By the way, when Jesus says the truth here we know He’s not talking about a fact or a belief that is truth. He’s talking about Himself. He is the word after all, and as He will later tell us in John 14:6

John 14:6 CSB

Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

If Jesus truly is who He says He is, and spoiler alert He is, than we are left with the unavoidable fact that we can only know truth through Him. Remember that John tells us at the end of his gospel that he wrote these things so that his readers would believe in Jesus and therefore live. Jesus out of all the gospel writers is the most intently focused one on the gospel message. Matthew, Mark, and Luke say a lot more about practical advice for living righteously. John wants us laser focused on the fact that Jesus is the only way to know God and live for Him. In this case in order to see at all we need Jesus.

So if you don’t really know Jesus you don’t really know truth. The only way to know God and live forever is to know Jesus and live for Him. If you do know Jesus than you need to know that He’s the only way for your friends and neighbors to know the truth also. This means that we can’t settle for letting people believe that if they’re nice people they’ll go to heaven. It also means that we can’t just argue someone into believing what we believe. They need to meet and know Jesus in order to see the truth, and that truth will set them free.

But that doesn’t mean that we come to Christ get baptized and then we’re done seeking Jesus in order to know truth. The call to every follower of Christ in this life is to know Jesus better every day. To grow in our knowledge of truth. Knowing that Jesus Himself is the light by which we see the truth means that knowing the truth means knowing Him. How do we know Him? Primarily by coming to Him in prayer and reading His word, the Bible. That task is never finished for the disciple of Jesus.

Jesus is the Son of God

Illustration: Some of us try not to be like our Dads, but then we catch ourselves saying the same “dad-isms” our Dads said.

Children take after their parents, for better or for worse. There are some things my Dad did that I would gladly do myself, others I actively try not to do. When I think of my own children there are many ways I hope they turn out like me. In many more ways I hope they don’t. There are exceptions to every rule of course, but a lot of the time you can see the way that children take after their parents. It’s sometimes very obvious, sometimes subtle but there.

So what do you do if you ended up with a bad influence for a Father, or worse if you have no father? Well a lot of people find father figures, people to look up to like a parent and to try to emulate. In fact the Big Brothers program was designed to set up those kinds of relationships for boys without Fathers. In a sense then that person becomes like a Father to you if you do the things that they do. To the point that I’m sure some of those who’ve had to live with bad Fathers consider someone else more their Father than their biological Fathers.

Biological descent isn’t everything, obviously. You can overcome bad parentage and the best parents in the world can still have a child who rebels and seeks after wrong things. And Jesus recognizes that in our passage today, when the Israelites He’s speaking with try to cling on to the legacy of their ancestor Abraham. Let’s pop in to their conversation starting at verse 33.

John 8:33–47 CSB

“We are descendants of Abraham,” they answered him, “and we have never been enslaved to anyone. How can you say, ‘You will become free’?” Jesus responded, “Truly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. A slave does not remain in the household forever, but a son does remain forever. So if the Son sets you free, you really will be free. I know you are descendants of Abraham, but you are trying to kill me because my word has no place among you. I speak what I have seen in the presence of the Father; so then, you do what you have heard from your father.” “Our father is Abraham,” they replied. “If you were Abraham’s children,” Jesus told them, “you would do what Abraham did. But now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You’re doing what your father does.” “We weren’t born of sexual immorality,” they said. “We have one Father—God.” Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, because I came from God and I am here. For I didn’t come on my own, but he sent me. Why don’t you understand what I say? Because you cannot listen to my word. You are of your father the devil, and you want to carry out 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 tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Who among you can convict me of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? The one who is from God listens to God’s words. This is why you don’t listen, because you are not from God.”

It’s not enough that they are descendants of Abraham if they don’t have the faith Abraham had. Physically, biologically, these people were the children of Abraham, but what about Spiritually? When they realize this won’t work they resort to saying that God is their Father, but Jesus won’t stand for that. If they were really children of God they would act like God, and they certainly wouldn’t reject Jesus.

The thing is, when mankind sinned we all proved ourselves to be children of the devil. You see it can be easy to read interactions like this between Jesus and the Pharisees and only see the Pharisees being rebuked. Don’t believe me, believe Paul, when he says in Ephesians 2:1-3

Ephesians 2:1–3 CSB

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient. We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.

But there’s good news. We don’t have to stay children of the devil. Jesus through the cross gives us a way to be adopted as sons. We are all born slaves of Sin. Slaves couldn’t be adopted as sons, at least not until they were set free. So through the cross the Son sets us free and then we are free to be adopted as sons. Galatians 4:4-7

Galatians 4:4–7 CSB

When the time came to completion, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then God has made you an heir.

The word redeem in that verse is the word for paying to free a slave. He redeemed us so the Father could adopt us. So in Jesus we are no longer children of murder and lies. We are children of the truth. We are born again into the family of God.

So as children of God let’s do what our Father does. Let’s live life according to His way, not living after the example of our former father the evil one, but living by the example of Jesus. Living a life of righteousness that only comes through His Holy Spirit. Then we will know by the fruit of our good works that we really are His, Amen?

Jesus is the Great “I AM”

Illustration: I have this theory that the annoyance level you experience when someone brags about themselves is the inverse of how much they can back it up.

I mean obviously straight up bragging is always at least a little annoying, but there’s a difference between me telling you how good at basketball I am and Michael Jordan telling you how good he is at basketball, right? I can’t back up what I’m saying, but He can.

Even better is if you let someone else do the bragging for you. If you don’t talk yourself up but you act in a way that inspires others to speak well of you. Jesus wasn’t shy to talk about who He was and what He could do, but first He could always back up His speech with action, and second, He didn’t boast about Himself, He just described Himself accurately and let God Himself talk Him up.

And a good thing too, because what He said about Himself is so big that it would take a miracle to back it up. Who did Jesus claim to be? Well let’s take a look at what He says at the end of today’s passage. Starting at verse 48.

John 8:48–59 CSB

The Jews responded to him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you’re a Samaritan and have a demon?” “I do not have a demon,” Jesus answered. “On the contrary, I honor my Father and you dishonor me. I do not seek my own glory; there is one who seeks it and judges. Truly I tell you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” Then the Jews said, “Now we know you have a demon. Abraham died and so did the prophets. You say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham who died? And the prophets died. Who do you claim to be?” “If I glorify myself,” Jesus answered, “my glory is nothing. My Father—about whom you say, ‘He is our God’—he is the one who glorifies me. You do not know him, but I know him. If I were to say I don’t know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him, and I keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad.” The Jews replied, “You aren’t fifty years old yet, and you’ve seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.” So they picked up stones to throw at him. But Jesus was hidden and went out of the temple.

Jesus doesn’t walk around Israel shouting to everyone, “I’m God, worship me!” And for good reason. That’s the kind of thing that crazy people do. Even if in Jesus’ case it was true, people wouldn’t have believed Him if He’d come right out and said it that way. Plus God made a big deal about there only being one God in the Old Testament, so to reveal that God was still one and yet that the Father is God and so is Jesus and so is the Holy Spirit takes some care and nuance.

So when Jesus does tell the people He is God He does so in a careful and nuanced way. But if you know the Jewish context He’s speaking in the fact that He is claiming to be God is unmistakeable. That context is Exodus 3:13-15

Exodus 3:13–15 CSB

Then Moses asked God, “If I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what should I tell them?” God replied to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the Israelites: The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever; this is how I am to be remembered in every generation.

So when Jesus ends this conversation by saying, “before Abraham was, I AM” they pick up stones for a reason. Jesus isn’t just claiming to be a god. He’s not trying to turn Judaism from monotheism to polytheism. He’s claiming to be Yahweh Himself. THE God of the Hebrew Scriptures in the Flesh.

There are a number of people today who want to say that Jesus never claimed to be God. Skeptics who want to undermine your faith in Jesus by claiming that His followers only came to believe He was God decades afterwards, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons who want to claim the Bible is inspired by God but that Jesus isn’t God. They say the idea of the trinity isn’t in the Bible and was made up by Greek Christians much later.

Well how do you explain this one? Sure the Bible never says, “God is a trinity, three persons one substance.” But it does say in Exodus 20:2-3

Exodus 20:2–3 CSB

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery. Do not have other gods besides me.

Yet here Jesus clearly talks about the Father as a seperate person and then says He is the I am. We won’t get into the reasons to believe the Holy Spirit is God because our chairs are not comfortable enough to make you sit through all that one top of everything else I’ve got to say in this sermon, but Jesus is so clearly claiming to be God here that you have to believe that somehow God is one God but that the Father and the Son are both God.

And those of you who’ve been here for the whole sermon series have seen Jesus saying so in more subtle ways already, but here it’s so clear that even the spiritually blind Pharisees immediately pick up rocks to throw at Him.

Why do I make such a big deal out of this? Because if you don’t believe that Jesus is God than you don’t really know Him, and you will die in your sins. If that sounds harsh remember that’s what Jesus said. So don’t be complacent about the people who believe that Jesus was a wise teacher but that He isn’t God.

John 8:24 CSB

Therefore I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.”

By the way, the “he” at the end of “I am he,” is not in the Greek. John’s gospel as written says here “if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins.” So in case you were wondering, yes you need to believe not just that Jesus was the Messiah and died for your sins, but that He is God Himself, in order to inherit eternal life.

There’s some doctrines of the church that are not hills to die on. For example predestination versus free will choice, young earth versus old earth, pre-millianial verses post millenial verses amillenial verses 90’s millenial. But the whole Jesus is God thing absolutely is a hill for us to die on. No compromise on this one. The disciples all literally died on that metaphorical hill.

Conclusion

So just as usual God through John’s gospel has a clear message for us this morning. All of it focused on who Jesus is, so that through it we can believe in Him as He truly is and therefore inherit eternal life. So we read in this passage about Jesus’ nature as the light of the world and how He is the one through whom we know truth, because He is truth. We see that though the rest of the world is full of children of the devil Jesus is the true Son of God, and His status as Son is how He can offer us freedom and adoption so that we can also be children of God. Finally we see the continued affirmation that Jesus is no ordinary human being. Instead He makes the bold claim that He is none other than Yahweh Himself come to earth in the flesh, and that if we don’t believe that He is we will die in our sins.

Knowing Jesus is no small thing my friends. Sometimes I catch myself growing concerned that these sermons in John’s gospel are growing repetitive, because He emphasizes the same things over again so often. The thing is though, that God inspired Him to do so for a reason. Knowing Jesus is the most important thing in all of life. Knowing Him not just in the sense of knowing facts about who He is, though as we’ve established today that is very important, but knowing Him like you know your friends, as a living person who loves you and wants to have a relationship with you.

So my challenge to all of us this morning is this: fall deeper in love with Jesus. Go looking for Him and spend time with Him and read His word. Then you will truly see, and seeing you will know the truth, and knowing the truth you will truly be free.