John 8:31-38
Notes
Transcript
Here is a question: ARE YOU TRULY A DISCIPLE OF JESUS CHRIST?
Here is the introduction:
There are two ways to grow a church:
Make the people who come feel good. Tell them how good they are deep down but you will be so much better and happier if you add some Jesus to your life.
Set the mood with the lights and spend a couple grand on the backdrop…you got to be impressive with it...
Give the people what they want…but you have to add a little Jesus of course.
I could go on but you get what Im saying…I don’t have time to paint the picture … you get it.
Or…you just preach the Word and let God do what God is going to do.
Teach doctrine, historical Christian doctrine, and watch what God does.
We choose option 2.
I hope everyone brought their mouth-piece this morning...
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”
Prayer:
Let’s look at what God is telling us in this text. To understand verse 31 lets look again at what we went over last week and let’s read verses 28-30
So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” As he was saying these things, many believed in him.
SUCCESS, right? I mean…after Jesus said this to these religious Jewish people we find out that “many believed in him.”
Wow! Alright! That’s awesome! Turn out the lights and SEE YA next week!
NOT Jesus. Nope. He has more to say to these “so called believers”.
You can fool a lot of people but you can’t fool Jesus Christ!
Remember the people who believed in him when he did the signs in Jerusalem in John 2?
Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people
That is the last two verses of chapter 2 and it is no coincidence that the conversation with Nicodemus starts in chapter 3.
Remember Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night and says, “Jesus, your’e awesome! Remember? We did that section back in November of 2020!
This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Isn’t it odd that Jesus doesn’t say, “Well Nicodemus, thank you for recognizing that in me. It really means a lot.”
Jesus doesn’t have time to waste so he goes straight to the heart of what Nicodemus really came to talk about and that is why he answers him this way.
You can’t fool Jesus Christ guys!
I can’t fool him either! He knows your heart and He knows mine.
Jesus has never been in the business of having a large group. He isn’t concerned about having a huge number of people.
What He is concerned about is true disciples. He is concerned about people knowing Him in a way they never dreamed of knowing God and what He has done for those who believe in Him.
So, it seems that “many believed in Him” in verse 30 and then we read this:
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,
How would you feel if he said that to you? How would you feel if someone, anyone, said that to you after you told them that you believed in Jesus?
I bet some would say, “excuse me? what? you don’t believe me or something?”
Here is one point that needs to be made about what Christ says here:
Not everyone who claims to believe in Jesus truly believes in Jesus.
Not everyone who “claims” to be a Christian is a Christian.
So here is the first question: What is a disciple? What does disciple mean?
Disciple: learner, pupil; one who engages in learning through instruction from another, pupil, apprentice
You want to know if you are truly a disciple of Christ? Would you like to know if you are truly a believer? Ever wondered if you really are a Christian?
Read the WORDS of Jesus Christ...
“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciple”.
the world “abide” means to continue.
As RC Sproul would say, “if you just say that you believe then that qualifies you to be a demon. Even the demons believe”.
There are so many who “claim” to be believers but they refuse to look at God’s Word. They claim to LOVE Him but refuse to study HIs Word.
the question is “DO YOU ABIDE, CONTINUE, IN HIS WORD”.
Do you crave to know Him more? Do you hunger to know Christ more?
NOT, do you get a warm fuzzy feeling by singing worship songs…as awesome as that may be.
Christ doesn’t say, “if you get a warm feeling by singing worship songs then you are TRULY my disciple”.
He says, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples”
Do you LONG to know Him through His WORD?
Do you love a serious Bible study?
Does the Word of God reveal to you who you really are and who He really is?
Do you see The Word of God producing fruit in your life and changing you from the inside because His Word is in you?
Are the teachings of Christ changing your heart and how you react and respond to this world?
If NOT…then you should really question your faith…
If your answer is NO…then know this…what I am telling you is the most loving thing you can hear!
Is it possible for a true disciple to be in a bad spot?
Is it possible for a true disciple to be in a season where he/she has not been in the Word?
Yes…but a true disciple repents and comes running back to the Word…and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, Jesus Christ.
What is verse 31 telling us?
That the true believer is the one who perseveres to the end.
It is called The Perseverance of the Saints
We persevere because it is Christ in us, working through us
We persevere because of the work of God in our lives
Look at verse 32
and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
So the true disciple is the one who abides in Christ’s Words.
And as we abide in His Word, we will know the truth and the truth will set you free.
A disciple is a student, a learner, a pupil. And by abiding in His Word we grow in a deeper understanding of who God is and what He has done for the church as a whole and for what He has done for each individual believer.
We become creatures of the Word and come to know the truth and that truth begins to set us free.
Once you dig into the Word of God, and you see how truly Amazing it really is…you will not be able to get enough of it.
I pray you crave it…I pray you want to study it often. I pray you want to know His Word more and more.
IF you do love His Word and you are drawn to studying it with anyone…whether they agree or disagree with you…if you love to talk about His Word and abide in it…then know this…you are truly His disciple.
But look at this verse again: it says that “the truth will set you free”....
The IMPLICATION is that those who do not abide in HIs Word are not free.
The opposite of freedom is slavery/bondage
That is pretty obvious and that is why these religious Jewish people who “claim” to believe in Jesus respond the way they do...
Look at verse 33:
They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”
Never been enslaved to anyone?
remember Egypt
Assyria
Babylon
your under the rule of Rome right now!
This is so true today!
Jesus tells them that the truth will set you free and they get what He is saying....He is saying that right now, they are not free!
You tell someone right now that they aren’t “FREE” they will look at you like you are from another planet! <<and if you go back to last weeks sermon…maybe thats true to a degree John 15:18-19>>
If you want to see someone get upset…go tell someone who doesn’t believe the Word of God that he is a slave to sin, held captive by Satan to do his will.
Tell that person the TRUE predicament of his situation and see how he responds. Tell someone that in their natural state, in their flesh they can do nothing to please God.
Tell them Romans 8:7-8 and see what they say
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Tell someone the truth of God’s Word that the person of the flesh cannot understand the things of God because of their bondage in sin:
Tell them 1 Co. 2:14
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
Tell the one who claims to “believe” in Jesus but does not abide in His Word that on His own he cannot come to Christ…and see how they respond.
Tell them John 6:65
And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
Look back at John 8:33
They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”
It is the hardest thing to see how entangled we are in sin.
We like to believe that “deep down we are good people” but the truth is, deep down we are horrible wretched sinners!
We are not sinners because we sinned.
We sin because we are sinners.
It is our nature. We have a sin nature.
It is the Doctrine of Original Sin.
Look at verse 34
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.
The biggest slavery one could be in is not political but spiritual.
We have a sin nature…we are born with it. We recieved this sinful nature from our first parents Adam and Eve.
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Iniquity = guilt
What God does is perfect and he picked the perfect representative to be placed in the garden. He represented all of mankind and he sinned. He was guilty of sin.
What you need to know is God’s ways are perfect
He picked the perfect representative of mankind to be in the garden
and He didn’t pick you or me.
if he did we would have done it too…just much much sooner.
Our nature is a sin nature. Our nature craves sin and what the unbeliever needs more than anything is to be rescued because as we saw in the Scriptures above there is nothing in our flesh that we can do.
look at verses 35
The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever.
The Jews claimed that they weren’t slaves because they were sons of Abraham.
But Abraham had 8 sons
But lets look at Isaac and Ishmael.
Ishmael was a son of Abraham from the slave Hagar.
Ishmael benefited from Abraham for a while until it was time to send him away.
So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.”
Jesus is telling these Religious Jewish people that God doesn’t accept all of Abraham’s children just because they have his bloodline.
If you are a slave to sin…regardless of who’s bloodline you have, you will not be accepted by the Father.
But Isaac, the son born of grace, was the true son of Abraham and received the blessings of Abraham and the promises of God.
So it is with all of us in the world today.
You may “claim” to be a believer in Christ and you may have the benefits of God as you surround yourself with God’s people but if you are slave to sin and you do not abide in His Word…you will be cast out just like Ishmael.
So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
This is the rescue we needed! This is the rescue you need!
It doesn’t say when you decide to set yourself free you will be free BUT “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
John 3 tells us that we love the darkness and hate the light…our hearts have to be changed and that is what Ezekiel tells us God does for us…he takes out our heart of stone and replaces it with a heart of flesh...
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.
That is GRACE!
People think they are free before Christ sets them free but remember what Paul says through the Holy Spirit in Galatians 5:1
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Lets look at verse 37
I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you.
Christ knows that these people are the descendents of Abraham but they are not the true descendents of Abraham.
The true descendents of Abraham are those who have faith in Christ.
Abraham believed the Word of God and so do his descendents. They believe the Word of God. They abide, continue, in His Word. They desire to know more of the One who rescued them from spiritual death and set them free to live in the light of the Light of the World.
The TRUE Disciple of Christ marvels at the promises of God in Christ Jesus!
The unbeliever finds it too much to believe…it doesn’t make sense to him/her. It is offensive and they refuse to believe.
Look at verse 38
I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”
These people who refuse to believe the Words of Christ show who they truly belong to.
It is not Abraham
It is not the God of Abraham
It is of the devil who has them captive and held in bondage.
So what does this all mean to you?
Listen to me...
If you want to know if you are truly a disciple of Jesus Christ ask yourself if you truly abide in His Word…do you love His Word?
Do you spend time in HIs Word
Do you want to know more of His Word?
I pray you do!
People outside of Christ THINK they are “free” but they are slaves to sin!
Christ is the one who sets us free.
We were never free before we came to Christ…and if you haven’t believed in Him you are not free right now.
the cares of this world are your priorities
other things are so far above the things of God in your life right now.
you are enslaved to the things of this world.
If you want to be truly free, free from sin, free from the guilt that you carry…cray out to Jesus and beg Him to set you free.
Beg Him to come and rescue you from your bondage of sin.
Cry out to God that Jesus will set you free and I promise you He will if you seek Him with all of your heart.