John 8:31-59

Wed. Night Bible Study

There seems to be a pause here and Jesus turns to those Jews that believed what Jesus was saying.

Verses 31-32....There is a lot of discussion about the first 3 verses, some avoid it, but we must make a distinction.

At the beginning of verse 31, John writes that Jesus is now speaking to those Jews which believed on Him.

It seems there is a transition of their belief in the following verses, better said that maybe they are leaning back towards the religion of their fathers more than of the teachings of Christ.

Some say that those believing Jews were superficial in their faith, while others say that these are the rejecting Jews posing this argument.

I can’t be sure which is which, if I was going to guess it would seem that the rejecting Jews forced their way into this conversation.

Possibly happened this way: As Jesus was warning the rejecting Jews just before, some believed and probably approached Jesus or the disciples and Jesus then turns His attention toward them. Furious as the rejecting Jews have been, this must have made them all the more and so they jumped into Jesus’ teaching.

Possible, but not sure.......it sure seems that way by the sharpness of the conversation as it continues in the passage. It could be that He is speaking to those that believed, but John 8:37 “I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.”. That just seems to me that Jesus is speaking to those religious leaders.

Now, back to the important truth:

Continuing in His Word; it is the Word of Truth, it is reality, it is power, it is freedom.

John 6:63 “ It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”

Peter affirmed it a few verses down: John 6:68 “Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.”

TRUTH: It does not mean “that truth in a philosophical sense exercises a liberating function, and that adherence to the school of Jesus procures such intellectual insight that men are delivered from the bonds of ignorance” (Morris 456). It means that as men come to know Jesus, both the source and embodiment of ultimate truth, they will be freed from the presence, power, and penalty of sin. They will, for the first time, be free men rather than slaves of sin and Satan.

The Words Jesus speaks are spirit and life (not of this world and eternal).

Continuing in the Truth of Jesus Christ, that is the call of the followers of Christ. It is about what Jesus said, it is never about the philosophy of this age or that age, it is never about the earthly moments, it always about the world above this one and eternal life.

To make that simple, living unto God. No way that can be done other than through Jesus Christ! This truth makes us free! Free from our debt of sin!

When you are in debt, you are a slave to that debt. As we are to our sin.......Galatians 5:3 “For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.”

Romans 8:12-13 “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.”

Ye shall live, meaning we have been made free!

Verses 33-38.........The Jews answered Jesus with their heritage that they placed their souls on........We are Abraham’s seed, this is the lineage of God and they are never in bondage, this was the promise that they thought, but the promise was: “out of Abraham’s seed.....”

The only way Abraham’s was even in the family of God, was by faith.......James 2:23 “And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.”

Also that was not true, the Jewish went many years in captivity.

Now, Jesus turns this conversation to the truth, turns them on their heads, actually: Whoever commits sin is a slave to sin (servant-the better word is slave).

The Jews thought of themselves only as free sons of Abraham, in reality they were slaves to sin. If you do not believe in the Son you will be enslaved in sin forever! (You will die in your sins).

Jesus is the genuine Son of God and by Jesus is the means of freedom. He liberates us from the bondage of fallen creation and makes us joint-heirs with Him!

If the Son makes you free, then you are really free. It is, not supposed to be free, or maybe you are free or kind-of free, you are really free! The bonds of sin has been loosed!

Jesus tells them that He knows they are Abraham’s physical seed, but He basically denies that their are of the spiritual seed of Abraham, which believed God.

Because they want to kill Jesus, because of His Words. Notice, that all of them was ready to accept His miracles and healings, but when Jesus began to speak many turned away. John 6:60-61 “Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? 61 When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you?”

Pause for a moment just to say this is noteworthy.......this is why I get all in an uproar about this prosperity message, it is so easy to jump on board at the scene of some kind of amazing show, but when the words come, some try to change, some just refuse to listen and say show me more stuff!

Jesus tells us here what the truth is, we are slaves to sin and we need a redeemer! That is the true power of God, His Love for us. When we set ourselves for something more, we can be deceived very easy!

This is what Jesus is saying, that they are trying to kill Him because of His Words! They will not let the True Words of Christ in!

The Truth is Jesus is just speaking that which is Father has given Him. He now makes a contrast, they say they followed God by the law, but their father was not God. Their hearts was not following after God, it is another father. He will tell them in just a minute.

Verse 39-47.........Abraham is our father....is the claim of the Jews......Jesus refutes that.....

If you were, you would act like Abraham.....James 2:23 “.........Abraham believed God........”! You would respond to the Words of God (Jesus).

Rather, they sought to kill the Word of God! The Truth that comes from God, that matches everything that is said in the Old Covenant!

But they do the deeds of their father......Jesus is about to tell them who their father is.

No they approach it like this: “Na nah, our Father is God”

Jesus reveals once again that they look nothing like God, nor they do they resemble Abraham.

If God was their Father, they would of loved Jesus and His Words, because He came from God, there is no difference from what they know about God in the OT and Jesus Christ as He lived and taught in front of them, no difference!

Jesus knows everything, but this is possibly a rhetorical question, Why don’t you understand what I say?

The answer is they refuse to hear it, you cannot hear it, their hearts were directed elsewhere, therefore it will be impossible to hear Jesus unless they were willing to hear!

Now, Jesus reveals their father, it is the devil. You will do the works of the devil, because that is heritage you desire.

I listened to a preacher talk about this and he started off talking about our family trees and finding out things about our heritage, he said he was a distant relative of General Douglas MacArthur. He continued and said all that is good, but in the eyes of God there are only 2 lineages.....

Either God is your father or the devil is, nothing else matters.

They carried out their father’s will, which was evil lusts, murders, rejecting the truth, a liar!

This is what Jesus was calling them! Can you imagine the outrage????

Jesus asks them which of them convicts Him of sin? The right interpretation of this question is: “Which of them could prove Jesus guilty of sin?”

Do you pretend to reject the truths which I announce, because my life does not correspond to the doctrines I have taught? But can any of you prove me guilty of any fault? You have maliciously watched all my steps; have you seen the smallest matter to reprove, in any part of my conduct?

Then Jesus just tells them that they can’t hear God, because they are not of God! They didn’t want to!

Verses 48-59.........They call Jesus a demon-possessed, half-breed.........The Samaritans John 4 the woman at the well.

Jesus refutes their claim, He didn’t have to but He was going to reveal more along with it.

He tells them that He honors His Father, God, and they are dishonoring God.

Jesus does not seek His own Glory but the Father’s......yet they refuse to believe it!

Jesus tells them that if anyone will keep His Words, they will not see death......

They act like a lawyer that thinks they have caught someone in a lie..........They are so far away from Spiritual Truth......but they were thinking that if that was the case then Abraham and the prophets would be walking around with them.........but they are all dead!

Who do You make yourself out to be? Do you think you are the ruler of all of this? Are you greater than our father Abraham?

In truth, Jesus does not make himself or exalt himself to be anything. Far from it: he is the most obedient and dependent of men, uniquely submissive to his Father. That is what He said in verse 50.

I love Jesus’ response....The Father glorifies Me....you can read Jesus’ prayer in John 17 to get more insight on that...........The One that honors or glorifies Jesus is the very One that they say is their God.

Yet, they don’t know Him, but Jesus knows Him, anything different from Jesus would make Him a liar, like they are!

Jesus states that He knows God the Father and keeps His Words. God’s Words are Jesus Words!

Verse 56 Jesus takes us back to the promises given to Abraham in Genesis 12:7 “And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him.”

Genesis 22:18 “And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.”

There are others think that Jesus is referring to Genesis 18:18 “Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?”

But more than that, look with me at Genesis 18.......the men that come to Abraham, being the Lord Jesus and that is what they think Jesus is referring to..........

I believe Jesus is referring to the knowledge that out of Abraham’s seed would come the Deliverer of the world!!!

Of course they were laughing at this, saying Jesus is not even 50 yrs. old, how could He know what Abraham did?

Jesus makes a powerful proclamation, before Abraham was, I AM. That is what God called Himself to Moses, that is a statement that declares that you were are not a created being, you have always been, in this Jesus also declares that He is the Lord of the OT, Yahweh!

He has been there always! Eternally pre-existent!

Now, that was too much for them, they picked up stones to kill Him. Here is another miracle, Jesus just slipped by all of them, right in the middle of all of them.

It wasn’t His time.

I wanted to add something here that I think might be important, what we have here is a TRue teaching of Jesus that whether Jew or Gentile, that if you do not believe in Him, you die in your sins. That He is the deliverer.

1. There are some famous preachers, that preach otherwise, as far as the Jews are concerned.

John Hagee wrote a book called In Defense of Israel in 2007.......

This is how he advertised his book “ This book will expose the sins of the fathers and the vicious abuse of the Jewish people. In Defense of Israel will shake Christian theology. It scripturally proves that the Jewish people as a whole did not reject Jesus as Messiah. It will also prove that Jesus did not come to earth to be the Messiah. It will prove that there was a Calvary conspiracy between Rome, the high priest, and Herod to execute Jesus as an insurrectionist too dangerous to live. Since Jesus refused by word and deed to claim to be the Messiah, how can the Jews be blamed for rejecting what was never offered? Read this shocking expose, In Defense of Israel (emphasis added).”