True Sons and Daughters

Introduction:

When we first moved here, we had a neighbor walk by and met us all in the yard. I introduced myself to them and worked in the garage while Bree and her talked. Then my son ran up, who is just like me in every way. And then my neighbor said the funniest line ever, she said to my wife “Wow, he looks just like his dad, except he’s cute”. It was so funny I didn’t even hurt my feelings (that much).

Have you had a relative tell you “You’re just like your mother/father”? That is a very loaded sentence. It can either be an incredibly kind compliment, or more than likely passive aggressive.

In a lot of ways, we do grow up to be like our parents. When I was a teenager, I would look at my parents and think “I’m never going to be like them”. But now, I’m halfway through my 30s and I do the same things they when I was a kid. When my kids get in the car with me, I show them all the music I liked when I was a teenager. When my kids ask for McDonalds, I tell them “we’ve got food at home”.

We all end up looking a little, or a lot like our parents. Jesus for instance does “all that His Father shows Him” since He is the Son of God.

Yet, Jesus was often called a different name. Oftentimes the crowds would call out to Him “Son of David”!

Why was that? The Gospel of Matthew starts off with a massive geneaology, and we find that there are 28 generations from David to Jesus. Also, He’s not unique in having this ancestor (19,000) in this time would. So why is He called Son of David?

Why? For just the same reason your relatives tell you “you’re just like your Father”. They aren’t talking about DNA, they’re talking about behavior.

Because He was doing what David did. Because to say that meant He is a King just like David.

Today’s crowd tells Jesus, “Abraham is our Father”, and Jesus tells them that they may be offspring but they are not children.

John 8:37–47 ESV

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.”

1. Offspring or Children?

Walk through

John 8:37–41 “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.””

A note on verse 41: “We’re not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father- even God.” is a defensive statement against Jesus. Jewish people have a lot of pride in knowing their ancestry. They though Jesus was doubting their pedigree, and this say “we’re not born of sexual immorality”, to say that they know who their father is, so they really are Abraham’s descendants.

A. Question 1. What is the difference between children and offspring?

Give the Story of Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael. Abraham + Hagar = Ishmael Abraham + Sarah = Isaac. Ishmael was about 13 years older than Isaac.

Remember this was Abraham and Sarah’s fault. Not Ishmael or Hagar.

Genesis 17:18–21 ESV

18 And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” 19 God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. 20 As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation. 21 But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.”

(no slide)

Galatians 4:22–23 ESV

22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. 23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise.

Transition Answer: Offspring come from their relatives. Children act like their relatives.

B. Principle: Honoring your Father

John 8:39 “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,”

Exodus 20:12 “12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.”

Who here was told by your parents “Honor they Father and Mother”?

I once had a friend whose mother would miss every church service, and cuss and yell. But she had this one verse memorized. If counters weren’t clean, she would yell at the top of her lungs for my friend to stop whatever we did to get up to do this.

It is actually a deeper principle than you might think. Modern Jewish people teach that this means we should stand up when they enter the room, and take care of them when they enter the room. Those things are good- but they’re missing the big picture here. I think this next verse will help us connect the dots.

Deuteronomy 6:7 “7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”

The Book of Kings is a great example.

Jehoshaphat has a positive record, in 1st Kings 22:43

1 Kings 22:43 ESV

43 He walked in all the way of Asa his father. He did not turn aside from it, doing what was right in the sight of the Lord. Yet the high places were not taken away, and the people still sacrificed and made offerings on the high places.

King Amon, on of Manasseh has a negative record.

2 Kings 21:21 “21 He walked in all the way in which his father walked and served the idols that his father served and worshiped them.”

Transition Jesus says their actions prove them not to be “children” of Abraham.

2. The Father You Honor

John 8:42–47 “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?

A. About Satan

John 8:44 “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.”

Here’s the thing- Satan is only recorded to kill 10 or 11 people in all of scripture if we include Job’s children and Judas. Yet he is THE enemy? Why is that? Yes there are demons, and yes there are spiritual forces, but is that really the threat of Satan? No one is killed my Satan or demons. No, instead humans do it for him. He is a murder, how? Because he is the father of lies.

Jesus states that they are acting just like Satan himself! Sinners aren’t a passive audience, who can choose a path of darkness or light. Instead, Jesus states sinners act just like their father.

Question 1. How is this helpful?

Evangelicals, like ourselves get criticized for doing this. We’re the people who talk about sin all the time. Why are we like this?

Well, because our Lord spoke of sin very often, as did the apostles.

Jesus calls people broods of vipers, unwashed graves. He calls them sinners, sons of Satan. So how is this helpful?

Romans 3:10–12 ESV

10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

Romans 3:23 ESV

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Great awakening- George Whitefield. Preached an estimated 18,000 times, totaling around 10 million people. He essentially set up the “Evangelical Movement” in America along with others. Evangelicals are known as such because they actually share their faith, rather than just inherit it from mom and dad. (Even though Whitefield was a Methodist, I still like him. ) Yet even back then he saw an essential problem with evangelicalism. The tents and singers would show up in town, many would run to the aisle and ask for salvation. Yet, the churches didn’t get bigger. And by the time the tent came back into town, those same people were asking for salvation. Whitefield had a name for them, he called them “Mushroom Converts”. They would pop up out of nowhere and disappear.

The problem as he saw it, was that they were never taught the law. They never saw their reflection in the mirror of the law, and never truly saw the need for Jesus.

Because they had no mirror, they didn’t see the smudges on their face of sin. They didn’t keep going to Jesus. Instead, they washed their face once and never looked back again.

No Christian should ever think to themselves “I’ll go to Jesus once to get my ticket, then I’ll never speak to Him again” That isn’t the talk of a Christian, it’s the talk of a user.

“I’m already saved. Why would I need the gospel?” is a sentence only a stranger to Jesus could say.

“That is the reason we have so many mushroom converts; so many persons who are always happy and jumping, but are never humbled for sin, never broken-hearted, and never truly brought to Jesus Christ. Evangelists must thunder the law before they offer grace. The sharp needle of the law must prepare the way for the scarlet thread of the gospel.”

-George Whitefield

B. Question 2. What is Abraham’s Legacy?

John 8:39-41

Go to verses about Abraham’s faith. Those of faith are true sons (daughters) of Abraham

Genesis 15:6 “6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.”

Romans 4:20–22 “20 No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22 That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.””

At last, by the mercy of God, meditating day and night, I gave heed to the context of the words, namely, “In it the righteousness of God is revealed, as it is written, ‘He who through faith is righteous shall live.’” There I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of God, namely by faith. And this is the meaning: the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel, namely, the passive righteousness with which merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written, “He who through faith is righteous shall live.” Here I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates.

Martin Luther

Abraham’s Legacy is believing the words of GOD! How dare this people call themselves children of Abraham when they try to kill His Son, rather than take hold of Him by faith.

Matthew 3:9 “9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.”

Application: Faith isn’t an inherited thing, it is something each of us must take up ourselves. Only then are we truly sons or daughters of the faithful.

ANSWER. YOUR FATHER IS THE ONE YOU HONOR

Conclusion

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.””

Do you hear the words of God?