“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.’  They answered him, ‘Abraham is our father.’ Jesus said to them, ‘If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. You are doing the works your father did.’ They said to him, ‘We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father—even God.’ 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. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.’ The Jews answered him, ‘Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?’ Jesus answered, ‘I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.’ The Jews said to him, ‘Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, “If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.” Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?’ Jesus answered, ‘If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, “He is our God.” But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.’ So the Jews said to him, ‘You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.’ So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.”

 Stumbling Blocks on the Path to Freedom

John 8:30, where we last left off, reads, “As he was saying these things, many believed in him.” Jesus’s reasoning appealed to some, and the accepting group is referenced in a very general sense. As we pick up in verse 31 though, we gain a degree of specificity to who Jesus is addressing, “So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him…” He is speaking to “the Jews,” which John uses exclusively to refer, not to the common man, but to the religious authorities and teachers of the Law. It seems that even among those who have largely made themselves opponents of the Truth, some of what Jesus has said has taken root. But as we know from the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13, roots grow to different depths, and it’s only belief that is sown in good soil that bears fruit, and does not wither.

1. The Stumbling Block of Pride

                Growing up in the Baptist church, I’ve often heard reference to “the sinners prayer.” At times, I’ve heard it recited like a creed, a word for word confession of sin and acceptance of Christ. More often, I’ve heard it delivered more organically – it is the central idea behind this prayer that is so important, as opposed to a word for word recitation. The two most central components are that first, you acknowledge that you are, in fact, a sinner. You do not measure up to the righteousness of God, and you alone are not fit to enter into His kingdom and stand in His presence. The second piece of the prayer is the acknowledgement that in the sin state we all share, Jesus is your only path to God. He is not just a wise man, with some good teaching that you want to ascribe to. He is not something that your life is better with, and tolerable without. You need Him. He is the only lifeline out of the dark chasm you find yourself in, the only light that guides you to shore. His death on the cross is a personal love letter, written in His blood, just for you. His resurrection is the delivered victory that none of us could claim on our own. In Him is life, light, purpose, truth, wisdom, compassion, strength, integrity, and a limitless number of virtues, for all things good are of God. It can be hard for some people to come to grips with their sin nature, the fact that they do in fact fall short, and find themselves condemned. You have to swallow a certain amount of pride to be able to confess this. But the Bible doesn’t call us to remove some of our pride, any more that is calls us to remove some of our lust, hatred, envy, or greed, but keep some of it around. This gets twisted in our culture because of simple word usage. Lust is wicked and corrosive, but love is beautiful and sacred. Hatred is violent and destructive, but righteous anger is the proper response in some cases. Neither envy nor greed can be seen in positive lights, but are dark and contemptable behaviors. Yet pride can somehow carry both positive and negative connotations. The very definition of pride gives us all the red flags we should need, “a feeling of deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one’s own achievements, the achievements of those with whom one is closely associated, or from qualities or possessions that are widely admired.” This has led me to realize that whenever I use the word “pride” positively, I’m not really using the correct word. The general sense of peace and happiness I feel around my success and accomplishments aren’t “pride” at all, because they’re not even my successes and accomplishments. The warm, fuzzy feeling that I’m filled with isn’t pride – it’s gratitude. I feel grateful, and blessed because God has blessed me, I feel nourished and fulfilled because He has given me gifts and presented me with opportunities to use them for His glory. This could all be easily dismissed as splitting hairs, it’s just a word after all, what does it really matter? But words have meanings, they do matter. Jesus says in Mark 7:18–23,

“‘Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?’ (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, ‘What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’”

In His list of things that defile a person, Jesus has pride right alongside a whole host of things that we would never make concession for. Elsewhere in the Bible, the book of Proverbs repeatedly cautions against the pitfalls of the prideful. This isn’t something we should keep around in small amounts, but should cast aside entirely as the sin it is. Returning to the subject of the sinners prayer, we can’t humbly come before, and accept our desperate requirement for Christ when we’re holding onto remnants of pride that tell us we don’t really need Jesus. This stumbling block is the first exemplified by the Jews in today’s passage.

“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”?’”

In John 15:14 Jesus says to the twelve,

“You are my friends if you do what I command you.”

There is an element of complete submission in following Jesus, which is also captured in what He tells the Jews in John 8. This doesn’t mean we can’t ask questions or seek to understand the why behind things, but it does mean that we can’t pick and choose what commandments to follow, or where we think the bounds of God’s authority end. Jesus offers true, transcendent, spiritual freedom to us when we come under His authority and abide in His word. But the response of the Jews isn’t to rejoice at the offer, but question Him in their pride. “What do you mean ‘we’ll be free’? We already are free.” They look to the world, toward answers in the flesh, and as they have in all their discourses with Jesus, they miss the point.  They look to their ancestry and heritage and take assurance from that, but as John the Baptist told them in Matthew 3:9,

“And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.”

Their faith and confidence are placed in their positions and lineage, instead of seeing that they’re compromised as sinners, and valuing what Jesus offers. They are blinded, first and foremost in this instance, by their pride.

“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.”

Understanding the nature of our slavery to sin is important, as this also helps us understand the complete freedom that Christ delivers us into. If someone is in prison, and they’re allowed to leave their cell and go out onto the yard, they are in a sense more free than they were, but in no definable way would they be called free. This is what the world offers – an illusion of freedom. This is exemplified when Satan tempts Jesus in Matthew 4:8–10,

“Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, ‘All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.”’”

It’s not that the Devil doesn’t have the ability to offer up these things. The culture and nature of the world is under his influence. He is called “the ruler of this world,” in John 12:31, “the god of this world,” in 2 Corinthians 4:4, and “the prince of the power of the air” in Ephesians 2:2, being described as one with the course of the world, and the spirit that is at work in “the sons of disobedience.” He can, in theory, hand over the sway he has over the material world, and it would be a mistake to think that Jesus, who we know from Hebrews 4:15 intimately understands our temptations, doesn’t see the appeal of this in the part of Him that is fully human. But what Satan has to offer is a broken, hollow, poisonous power. It’s a free car that blows up when you turn the key in the ignition, it’s luxurious place to stay that’s slated to be demolished while you’re asleep inside. But Jesus knows exactly what the enemy is offering, seeking to bribe and corrupt Him with the very thing He created in the beginning, and in the spirit of Truth, there is freedom from the trap. The world, being sinful, and being enslaved by this sin, is like a slave making household promises. They live there, but they hold no rights there. They don’t own the property, they have no inheritance or share in it, and they will not be there permanently. What Jesus offers is on the authority of the only Son, sent from the Father. There is nothing hollow, or insufficient about what He offers, it is true and permanent freedom. But this isn’t something we can see or accept, when we’re blinded by worldliness and pride.

2.      The Stumbling Block of Lies

“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.’  They answered him, ‘Abraham is our father.’ Jesus said to them, ‘If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. You are doing the works your father did.’ They said to him, ‘We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father—even God.’ 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. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.’”

The third of the Ten Commandments that God delivers to Moses is recorded in Exodus 20:7,

“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.”

For most of my life this was explained to me as not saying “God,” “Jesus,” or “Christ” in irreverent, insincere, or inappropriate ways. To be clear, we shouldn’t use the names we set aside for God flippantly, but should seek to give Him the honor and respect that He is due in all things pertaining to Him – but I don’t think that’s what the commandment is talking about. I first heard this idea put forward by Dr. Michael Heiser, and it made a tremendous amount of sense. The thought is that to “take the name of the LORD your God in vain,” is to claim God as the one you serve, worship, and acknowledge as your God, without conviction or sincerity. It’s a clumsy comparison, but if I say that I’m a die-hard fan for a specific sports team, that they’re the greatest of all time, and that no one can beat them – but I’ve never been to a game, or watched one on TV, I don’t know who any of the players or coaches are, and have no clue what their record is, my claim doesn’t seem very legitimate. I wore a Boston Red Sox hat for years, because my grandpa gave it to me, and it fit my giant bucket of a head, but I was never a Red Sox fan, I just liked the hat (though wearing it in public while not being a Red Sox fan proved to be more trouble than it was worth). Jesus (unsurprisingly) tackles this far better than I do in Matthew 21:28-31,

““What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, “Son, go and work in the vineyard today.” And he answered, “I will not,” but afterward he changed his mind and went. And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, “I go, sir,” but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?’ They said, ‘The first.’ Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you.’”

God is God no matter what, our acknowledgement of that doesn’t change His position as Creator of the universe and Author of reality. But when we do acknowledge Him, it bears a resulting change in us. To call ourselves Christians, yet not seek God, but continue to follow the world shows an insincerity and a hollowness in our claim. In todays passage, the Jews that Jesus speaks with do this first concerning Abraham. God tells Abraham in Genesis 17:4–8,

“‘Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”

The ruling Jews cling to this covenant and cherish applying it to themselves as descendants and “sons” of Abraham. In doing so, they claim God as their God, but their aims and actions don’t support this. This is a lie; one they seem to tell themselves as well as everyone else. Jesus says in Matthew 7:17–20,

“So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.”

While He’s speaking in particular of false prophets, this seems to apply to anyone’s spiritual life, in that the good cannot produce bad, nor the bad produce good. Sons of God do the work of God, while sons of disobedience do the dark and murderous work of the enemy. I heard a pastor say recently that the way Satan kills you isn’t that he comes running at you with a machete, but that he lies, which gives a clear depiction of how he operates. He lied to himself when he conceived that he could be like God, and sold the same lie to Eve when he told her that God was wrong, and it was okay to eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. And this is the same lie, adopted and lived out by those who Jesus speaks to here. The same group He addresses in Matthew 23:29–36,

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.”

They are liars in deed, they are murderers in spirit, and they are guilty of what Jesus accuses them. They claim God in vain, and mirror the wickedness that the enemy has shown from the beginning.

3.      The Stumbling Block of Worldly Wisdom

“The Jews answered him, ‘Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?’ Jesus answered, ‘I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.’”

During the Feast of Booths, when Jesus questioned the Jews concerning their lack of adhering to the Law, and aims to kill Him, they respond in John 7:20,

 “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?”

They tried to patronize and gaslight Jesus, despite the fact that if we read ahead to verse 25, we see that the people were aware that the Jews were seeking to kill Him. They tried to accuse Him then of having a demon. At the time, Jesus didn’t even address the accusation, but continued to publicly grill them over their hypocrisy. Now, they layer another insult in with their accusation, that He must be a Samaritan as well. They know where Jesus comes from, at least in an earthly sense, and they know that He’s not from Samaria. This is profoundly petty, being outreasoned by someone, and resorting to name calling. And given the context of the contempt and disgust that the Jews felt toward the Samaritans, it’s a particularly offensive thing for them to call Him. This time Jesus does address the demon accusation, but doesn’t touch on the Samaritan comment, which reinforces how foolish and baseless this insult was. We also know from John 4 that Jesus doesn’t view the Samaritans as the offensive, mongrel race that the ruling Jews do. Jesus shows compassion for them, and shows them the Way as He does for all lost people. But as the Jews hurl baseless insults at Jesus in an attempt to tear down His reasoned case against them, they show the depth of their dishonor for Him, and through Him, the Father. Yes, they dishonor Jesus as an individual, but in this respect, He’s not concerned. The issue is that He is the only Son, sent by and with the authority of the Father. When they seek to tear Him down because His Truth finds no place in their hearts, they seek to tear down God. What is evil has become a delight to them, and what is righteous has become wicked in their eyes. They tragically fulfill the words of Isaiah 5:20,

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”

What Jesus offers, the glory that is found in Him, which is the glory of the Father, is the freedom from sin, and the key to eternal life. In saying as much, the Jews think they have Jesus on a technicality, and acting as they have before, they jump at this.

“The Jews said to him, ‘Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, “If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.” Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you make yourself out to be?’ Jesus answered, ‘If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, “He is our God.” But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word.’”

The flesh, which is stained by sin, is doomed to die. Jesus’s words are fulfilled in the Spirit. The Jews, however, have no place in their hearts for understanding in the Spirit, and lean only on what they’re sure of from a worldly, legalistic perspective. Jesus addresses the matter of eternal life and Abraham in particular when He answers the loaded questions of the Sadducees in Matthew 22:31–33,

“‘And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.’ And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.”

Just because Abraham, the prophets, or any other of God’s people have died in the flesh, doesn’t mean they are truly dead, as God gives life in the way that matters most, in preserving the spirit. What Jesus declares is Truth. Whether the hard hearts of the ruling Jews can receive it or not, it doesn’t change the fact that it’s the Truth. We’ve seen that they are prideful, they the lie in their hearts, and as things progress, they are consistently blind in their worldly understanding.

“Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.’ So the Jews said to him, ‘You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?’”

This point that the Jews choose to pick at actually has physical and spiritual implications. We know from the start of John’s gospel that the Son, the Word which became flesh, was both with God and was God from the beginning. Jesus was there with God before the dawn of creation, and He was there when Abraham (still Abram at the time) was first called in Genesis 12. But if we jump forward to Genesis 18, just before the destruction of Sodom, three men come to visit Abraham and Sarah – two angels and the Lord Himself. It is in this passage that the Lord tells Abraham that Sarah will have a son in about a year, as well as where Abraham seeks to humbly intercede to the Lord on behalf of Sodom. Elements of this passage are debated by commentators, similar to Genesis 32 where Jacob physically wrestles with God. Was this a pre-incarnated Jesus, or was this God taking on a physical form? Not to be reductionist, but that starts to feel like splitting hairs. While Father, Son, and Spirit have their own definable characteristics, they are also one. To say that God stood before Abraham in the form of a man, and that it was not Jesus, feels like a mistake, even if it wasn’t Jesus as we know Him as the Son. Suffice it to say, despite what the Jews think as they question Jesus, He has seen and known Abraham in every capacity, and Abraham has known Him.

Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.’ So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.”

This is the greatest truth, and in its greatness, the one that the world truly cannot stand.

John 3:19,

“And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.”

When the heart is bent on wickedness, the only response to righteousness is violence. In prior instances, the hand of those against Jesus was stayed by the power of His words alone. But in this case, the response of physical violence is swift and immediate. Jesus will still not be killed before His hour; God’s plan is still absolute. We’re given another example of how Jesus perfectly stokes the coals of His opposition leading up to His crucifixion. He doesn’t push things past a certain point, or allow Himself to be taken before it is time, but He also doesn’t go just away, and allow things to cool off. His Truth is ever present and persistent against the broken and worldly teachings of the Jews. He pokes at their pride, He exposes their lies, and His wisdom turns their worldly understanding to confusion and rage. We could look at the religious rulers, as well as many of the crowd who fail to see Jesus for who He truly is, as feel a sense of disconnect. These people lived thousands of years ago, their culture and society are foreign to us, and we could easily read of them in an objective, disconnected way. But sin hasn’t changed since the garden, murder hasn’t changed since Cain, and the darkness then is the darkness now. The stumbling blocks of the Jews that opposed Jesus existed before their time, and will exist so long as this world does. We are not above them by virtue of time, education, or advancement, but are just as susceptible to trip over them in our world today as they were then. The solution is not in our worldly differences from them, but in our spiritual ones. The question for us now is the same as the it was for them then – Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. But do you know this Way, does this Truth live inside of you, and have you been delivered into the Life?

Pastor Chris’s sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1ncFvF-Vok