The Faith-Altering Claims of Jesus
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
For a few weeks now we’ve been studying Jesus interaction with a group of Jewish people who initially believed that Jesus might just be the Messiah they were hoping for.
The flow of people’s response to Jesus in this section can be summed up in the following three verses:
V. 25 = “Who are you?”
Some of these would even believe some of what Jesus said about Himself at first.
V. 53 = “Who do you make yourself out to be?” (In essence, “Just who do you think you are to make such claims?!?!”)
After hearing some of what Jesus claims about Himself they go from interested to offended.
They are offended, at this point, because Jesus informed them that their spiritual heritage wasn’t enough to put them in good spiritual standing with God. But, even more so, because Jesus said that their actions prove that their father was not Abraham or God, but the devil.
Why such harsh language from Jesus?
Because their false belief put them in eternal peril. Jesus words were designed to shake them up and alter their false belief and practice.
Additionally, their claims are an affront to God and His righteous character. As one writer put it, “avenge insults offered to God, but...overlook such as are offered to ourselves.” Jesus does just that, as we shall see.
V. 59 = “So they picked up stones to throw at him...”
After Jesus makes His most audacious claim about Himself, they are prepared to execute Him.
How did they digress from wanting to know who Jesus was, to questioning His testimony and even His sanity, to wanting to kill him?
Jesus made claims about Himself that force people to make a faith-altering decision about Him.
Jesus made claims about Himself that force people to make a faith-altering decision about Him.
Jesus is basically challenging them to believe three faith-altering claims.
I call them faith-altering because if one believes all three of these, it will completely change what one believes about God, about religion, about life on earth, about everything.
Body: John 8:48-59
Body: John 8:48-59
Four Attacks on Jesus
Four Attacks on Jesus
You are a half-breed, heretic! (v. 48)
You are insane! (vv. 48, 52)
You are a liar! (vv. 52-53, 57)
You are a blasphemer (v. 59)
Three Faith-Altering Claims of Jesus
Three Faith-Altering Claims of Jesus
Jesus claims that His glory comes from God.
Jesus claims that His glory comes from God.
Verses 49-50, 54
Honor & shame society...
They dishonor Jesus by claiming He is demon possessed, but more importantly, they dishonor God who seeks glory for Jesus.
Within Jewish law, to reject someone’s messenger was to reject the sender himself.
Thus, by dishonoring Jesus, they are actually dishonoring God.
Notice that Jesus ignores the racially motivated comment about being a Samaritan.
Additionally, Jesus response to the claim of demon-possession is brief and to the point.
There is no use spending mental energy and valuable time trying to convince your enemies that they are wrong about you when their minds are already made up.
As Jesus says, God is the ultimate judge.
What does Jesus mean when He speaks of glory?
In this case, glory is synonymous with honor.
Thus, Jesus is saying He doesn’t need to be honored by them, or to honor Himself, because God the Father honors Him.
What’s more, because they dishonor Him, they dishonor the One who God’s honors. Therefore, they are against God.
If Jesus glory (or honor) comes from God, the implications for His detractors is serious:
By verbally attacking Jesus, they are actually attacking God who sent Him.
By plotting to kill Jesus, they are no different than their forefathers who rejected and killed the prophets.
Jesus claims that He knows God personally.
Jesus claims that He knows God personally.
Verses 55-56
The terms “known” and “know” here are important.
The Greek word here is not simply to know something cognitively, but to know something or someone by experience and personally.
To His opponents, God wasn’t to be approached experientially and personally.
Others, like Abraham, in the past might have done that, but now being God’s people called for following a complex set of rules and expectations.
One example: the name Adoni...
Jesus, on the other hand, spoke of God from a personal, experiential point-of-view.
We see this throughout John’s Gospel:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.
So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.
“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.
For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.
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.”
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.
Jesus knows God like no one else ever has or could. Why? Look at the final claim.
Jesus claims that He is God.
Jesus claims that He is God.
Verses 51, 58
One of my favorite aspects of this passage is that Jesus briefly addresses the claim that He’s demon-possessed, but then gets back to the central message: the salvation of His hearers.
When Jesus talks about not experiencing death, surely he’s not talking about physical death?
That’s what the people believed He was saying, and thus they are convinced that He’s insane and claiming that He’s greater than Abraham and the prophets.
“Just who do you think you are?”
However, as is often the case when Jesus speaks to people, there was more to His statement than simple face-value.
Go back to verses 31-32
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.”
Jesus had called them to become His disciples. Which means both a follower and a learner.
For those who really believed, they would learn that Jesus often talked about the second death and eternal life.
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
But who can promise that a person will not experience eternal death but God alone?
“...before Abraham was, I am.”
This connects directly with God’s revelation to Moses:
God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ”
In using the designation “I am”, Jesus is claiming divinity for His own.
This is why the people react the way they do, attempting to stone Him because to them, He has committed blasphemy.
So What?
So What?
We must all decide if Jesus claims about Himself are worthy of stones or discipleship.
We must all decide if Jesus claims about Himself are worthy of stones or discipleship.
Jesus made faith-altering claims in this section. The question for all of us is: do I believe Him?
We all, ultimately, have only two choices: Believe Jesus claims or reject them.
If He’s not who He claimed to be, then He deserved to be stoned to death.
However, if He is, then He deserves our commitment to being His disciples.
We must be willing to proclaim an unpopular message.
We must be willing to proclaim an unpopular message.
The message of Christ Jesus, the real message of the Bible, was never going to be a popular message.
In fact, look at what Jesus says later in John’s Gospel:
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.
At some point in the past, the church started to believe that we needed to pretty up the message of Christ in order to appeal to people’s felt needs.
But here’s the reality: the Gospel was never intended to be a popular message. It’s the truth, but it’s not necessarily going to be popular.
And yet, it’s the only message of the church, thus it is the purpose of the church of Jesus Christ.
We must live lives of faith and faithfulness.
We must live lives of faith and faithfulness.
Going back to the beginning of this interaction, Jesus called these people to abide in His word if they want to be His disciples.
Abiding means continuing in Christ. Continue believing, continue obeying, continue following.
In short, faith and faithfulness.