Sermon Tone Analysis

We are looking at John 8:12-20 this week.

I encourage you to open your bibles, or your bible apps and follow along.

Those with the faithlife or logos bible apps, the passage link will appear on your screens to follow along.

John 8:12-20.

There is a lot in this little portion of scripture.

Let’s begin by asking the Lord to give us the spiritual understanding, so we might know how to apply this to our lives.

Prayer

Jesus the Son of God

John wrote this account of Jesus that we might know that Jesus is the Son of God.

Jesus being God the Son means that He is fully God, the second person that makes up God who is three persons / One God — Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

There are two ways in which we see Jesus getting this truth across to the people to whom He was speaking at this time.

The first way we see this is that Jesus was calling God His Father.

Jesus called God his Father.

Let’s remember the setting.

This passage is still taking place during the Festival of Tabernacles, which began in John 7.

The Feast of Tabernacles was one of the three annual feasts for which the Jews were to all go to Jerusalem.

At this feast, they were to remember how God brought them through the wilderness, to the promised land after He freed them from slavery in Egypt.

This feast looked back to what God had done, and also looked forward to what God promised to do in the future when He will bring them into the promised Kingdom which will be when the Messiah, the descendent of David comes down to the Mount of Olives, and established the kingdom that is over all other kingdoms of the earth.

This was foretold to David in 2 Samuel 7:16, Daniel, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Zechariah, Micah and other prophets.

We looked at Zechariah 14 a couple weeks ago.

At this festival recorded in John 7 & 8, there were many questions being asked to and about Jesus.

Where did He get his understanding and knowledge?

Where was He from?

Where was He going?

To each of these, Jesus gave the answer, His Father.

In John 7, He does not use the term “Father,” however that is to whom He refers.

Where did He get his understanding?

He got His understanding from His Father the One who sent Him.

Where was He from?

They knew He was physically from Nazareth.

However, He was truly from His Father who sent Him.

Where was He going?

He was going to go to His Father, whom they did not know.

He is going to repeat that in John 8.

In John 8:12-59, instead of continuing to say, “Him who sent me,” Jesus explicitly says, “Father.”

He is making it utterly clear to them what He is saying.

In fact, in this section of scripture, Jesus refers to God as His Father 20 times!

I know I can repeat myself week to week.

That is because I want to be sure to tie the scriptures together as we study.

Jesus did not call God His Father 20 times over a period of weeks.

This was in one discourse, in one afternoon, possibly in the course of an hour!! Probably less!

I think He was making a point, and the Jews knew it.

They knew it because when He had been in Jerusalem at the feast recorded in John 5 when He healed the man who was lame at the Pool of Bethesda, He made it clear to them on that occasion that God the Father was His Father.

They knew exactly what He was saying then, and on that occasion they tried to kill Him, remember?

By calling God His Father, Jesus was claiming to be God.

They knew that Jesus was calling God His Father— making himself equal with God— yet no one seized him, because His hour had not yet come.

When Jesus called Himself “the Son of God,” they knew He was claiming to be God.

The second way we know Jesus was claiming to be God was in verse 12.

Jesus claimed to be “I Am”

Jesus claimed to be “I am.”

This is the name which God gave to Moses when He appeared to Him in the burning bush.

He is the Great I AM!

He told the Samaritan woman at the well that He is the I am.

He then told the crowds He fed miraculously, “I am the bread of Life.”

Now, Jesus tells the Jews in Jerusalem, that “I am the light of the world.”

In making that claim, Jesus was claiming to be God.

Remember the context.

They are celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles, remembering how the Lord led their ancestors through the wilderness.

How did He lead them?

With a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

When you read through Exodus and Numbers, it repeats it a few times that they only moved out when the cloud and pillar of fire moved out.

They stayed put when it stayed put.

When it did stay put, where was it?

What was it like?

It was over the tabernacle, and filled the tabernacle with glorious light!

Now, who was in the cloud and fire?

God!!

That was a big part of the Feast of the Tabernacles.

They would remember how God dwelt among their ancestors, and led them with a pillar of fire.

In fact, during the Feast of Tabernacles, in the court of the women, which is where Jesus was teaching, they had gigantic candelabra, fifty cubits high.

which were lit during this feast.

It was said that they shed their soft light over all the city!

Jesus was telling them that He was their light, the one that led them through the wilderness!

And, as we said before, the festival was looking forward to when God would come and take them into the promised kingdom, when, as Isaiah prophesied,

And a few verses later...

God is the source of light in His coming Kingdom!

And let’s reread Zechariah 14, which we mentioned a couple weeks ago.

When the Messiah came, associated with the Feast of Tabernacles, it was going to be a day and night full of light!

Just like when they had the bright cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night.

What is the light that was coming?

The same light as when God dwelt among their ancestors!

God in His glory!

He was coming to be with them!!

Now, Jesus is claiming to be that light.

And in claiming to be that light of the world, He is claiming to be God!

To this, the priests scoffed, your testimony about yourself is not valid.

They forgot that they already had this conversation at the last feast, as recorded in John 5. Jesus told them at that time that John the Baptist testified to Him, His works and His Father all testified about Him.

This time Jesus lets them know that his own testimony is valid, and backed up by the Father!

If they knew the Father, they would know Him.

Ouch!

They knew what He was saying.

He was saying that they did not know God.

These were the priests and pharisees, the religious leaders!

They knew it, and they did not like it!

They wanted to kill Him.

But no one seized Him because His hour had not yet come.

Jesus is claiming to be God, and we don’t want to miss it.

This is important for us to understand.

There is a lot of confusion about who Jesus is in the world.

We as believers must know who Jesus is, and where the Bible makes this clear.