What Jesus Says...
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Common phobias:
Arachnophobia = fear of spiders
Ophidiophobia = fear of snakes
Arachno-ophidiophobia = fear of hybrid spider-snakes
Acrophobia = fear of heights (to be be confused with acrobat, the fear of falling from a high wire)
Aerophobia = fear of flying
Trypanophobia = fear of injections
Glossophobia = fear of speaking in public
Benophobia = fear that Pastor Ben will publicly speak for a really long time
Fears with Funny Names:
Arithmophobia = the fear of numbers (the fear of math is called adolescence)
Cacophobia = the fear of ugliness
Genuphobia = the fear of knees
Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia = the fear of long words
Philematophobia = the fear of kissing (Fatherhood = the fear of your daughter kissing some boy)
Phobophobia = the fear of phobias
Pogonophobia = the fear of beards
A more common one than most of us realize is called Allodoxophobia, is the fear of other people’s opinions.
This is common and widespread today.
While we shouldn’t be afraid of other people’s opinions, this doesn’t discount the fact that sometimes people’s opinions about us do matter...
One person’s opinion about us matters more than anyone; that person being Jesus.
This is both a deep and wide passage, one that deserves more attention than forty-five minutes on a Sunday morning. Therefore, my goals this morning are two-fold:
To give you a working outline for a deeper, more comprehensive study of this passage this week.
To challenge each of us to ask ourselves the question, “What would Jesus say of me? Am I truly a follower or an enemy?”
Exegesis of John 8:12-30
Exegesis of John 8:12-30
Read John 8:12-30
What Jesus says about Himself:
What Jesus says about Himself:
He is the light for a dark world.
He is the light for a dark world.
Read John 8:12
Setting was the Feast of Tabernacles.
Jesus likely said this during the candle-lighting part of the Feast, in which four massive candles were lit, representing the pillar of fire God sent to help guide the children of Israel during the Exodus and protected them from harm by the Egyptian army.
Just as that light served to guide Israel out of the bondage of slavery, so the light that is Jesus guides those who follow Him out of the bondage of sin, protecting us from the eternal punishment that is the penalty for sin.
The only light that overcomes the darkness imposed on this world by sin is the light of Christ Jesus...
His origins are heavenly, thus His testimony is true.
His origins are heavenly, thus His testimony is true.
Read John 8:14-18; John 8:23; John 8:25-26; John 8:28
While the religious leaders wanted to invalidate His testimony, claiming He was simply testifying on behalf of Himself, Jesus shows them the fallacy of their argument.
First, if they truly knew He was, they would know that His testimony is trustworthy because His origins were heavenly, not earthly.
Just because a person testifies on their own behalf, doesn’t necessarily make that testimony wrong!
If there has even been a trustworthy witness for Himself, it would be Jesus.
Second, Jesus does have another witness: God the Father.
But, they don’t know the Father, so it would stand to reason that they wouldn’t know God the Son either.
He only does what pleases the Father.
He only does what pleases the Father.
Read John 8:29
Unlike other “self witnesses” Jesus had no personal stakes. His sole purpose was to fulfill the purposes of the Father.
A false witness always has a reason for testifying falsely…typically because they perceive that they have something to gain from their false testimony.
All Jesus wanted to “gain” was to do what was pleasing to the Father.
What was pleasing to the Father?
Read John 8:26; John 8:28
Jesus declaration to the world what He has heard from the Father
Jesus being “lifted up”
Dual meaning here:
Points to the crucifixion
Points to His exultation
All of this points to Jesus being the only completely trustworthy witness.
All of this points to Jesus being the only completely trustworthy witness.
What Jesus says about His followers:
What Jesus says about His followers:
They will not walk in the darkness of the world, but will have the light of life.
They will not walk in the darkness of the world, but will have the light of life.
John 8:12
A follower of Jesus is one who:
Recognizes that he or she needs the light;
Acknowledges that Jesus is the only true light that overcomes the darkness brought on by sin;
Walks in the light.
Not that we walk in sinlessness, but that we now understand the true cost of sin, and do all that we can to not walk in the darkness, but continually seek to walk in the light.
This is the light of life (i.e. the light that brings and gives life)
Additionally, it is a light that cannot be hidden from the world.
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,
They will not die in their sins and they will be able to go where Jesus goes
They will not die in their sins and they will be able to go where Jesus goes
John 8:21; John 8:24
While this is not directly stated here, it’s implied in opposition to what Jesus says about the religious leaders.
Jesus states it plainly in John 8:24: “unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.”
To die in one’s sins means that a person will have to paid the penalty for their sin themselves, something that no human being can do.
Conversely, those who believe that Jesus is the Savior and become His follower, their penalty for sin has been paid in full by Jesus.
And where Jesus is going, to Heaven with the Father, is where those who believe will go someday.
What Jesus says about His enemies:
What Jesus says about His enemies:
They are ignorant about the things of God.
They are ignorant about the things of God.
John 8:14; John 8:19; John 8:22-23
While they fashioned themselves as the experts when it came to the things of God, they were, in fact, ignorant of the things of God. And they show this by their response to Jesus.
It reminds me of a story I recently read about Dr. Gordon A. Alles. He was a chemist who pioneered the development of insulin for the treatment of diabetes. Ironically, Dr. Alles died of diabetes, the very disease that he developed insulin for.
His friends drew two conclusions about this: either he did not know he had the disease, or he purposely neglected the use of the remedy.
This is like the religious leaders of Jesus day. They had all the information they needed, they just rejected what should have been plain to them, thus made themselves ignorant.
They judge according to human wisdom, not godly wisdom, because they are worldly.
They judge according to human wisdom, not godly wisdom, because they are worldly.
John 8:15, 8:23
Their drew their conclusions from their own wisdom and understanding, which made them arrogant and blind to the truth.
Much of this was because they’d become so enamored with the world and their place in it that they no longer had their eyes on heaven.
I’ve heard it said that a person has become so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good. However, this is a lie from the pits of hell.
A person who is truly heavenly minded can’t help but do earthly good because they, like Jesus, are focused on being pleasing to the Lord.
They will die in their sin of unbelief.
They will die in their sin of unbelief.
John 8:24
Jesus doesn’t soft-pedal things here. This is the hard reality that many people today ignore or reject outright because it’s not politically correct, open-minded, or inclusive enough.
Yet, to reject this truth is to say that Jesus was either mistaken, lying, or off His rocker.
In some of the most plain words you’ll find in Scripture Jesus tells them that if they reject Him, they will die in their sin, eternally separated from God.
If someone says to themselves, like the religious leaders of Jesus day, “I don’t need this Jesus you church-folk speak of!” Then that’s what they will get. And, then they will be accountable for their own sins.
It’s like paying off debt: $5000 of credit card debt will take you six years and eleven months to pay off if you make the minimum payments.
Think about how many people have more than that!
Our national debt is $28 trillion dollars and climbing!
If you stacked $100 bills on each other, $1 trillion dollars would reach the International Space Station…thus, our national debt is 28 trips to the International Space Station!
The price is too much for any one of us to pay.
So What?
So What?
Which one are you, a follower of Jesus or an enemy of Jesus?
Which one are you, a follower of Jesus or an enemy of Jesus?
His enemies are many today:
His enemies are many today:
They are ignorant of the things of God;
They judge according to human wisdom, not godly wisdom, because they are worldly.
They will die in their sin of unbelief.
His followers are not as numerous, yet they are owners of a great promise:
His followers are not as numerous, yet they are owners of a great promise:
They will not walk in darkness, but will walk in the light that is Jesus.
They will not die in their sins, as their sins have been paid for.
They will go to where Jesus is someday.