Moments to Ponder

Episode 131: Living in Truth: Embracing Conviction and Freedom (John 8:21-59)

• Betsy Marvin • Season 15 • Episode 131

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Have you ever felt both challenged and inspired by a message that seemed to pierce through the noise of everyday life? Join us as we navigate the power of conviction with insights from dynamic speakers like Francis Chan, whose compelling delivery mirrors the urgency found in Jesus's teachings from John 8. We recount personal encounters from conferences and explore how different speaking styles affect audiences, emphasizing how profound messages can provoke thought and foster spiritual growth. This episode shines a light on the way Jesus communicated with the temple crowd, offering a poignant reminder of the importance of spiritual awareness over mundane routines, and how truth carries the potential to set us free.

As we journey through this conversation, we unravel the deep link between truth and freedom, discussing how embracing authenticity can lead to true liberation. Discover the transformative power that comes from sharing secrets, confronting fears, and releasing burdens within a framework of divine truth. We also explore the spiritual awakenings occurring on college campuses, where students are finding liberation through openness and honesty. Encouraging listeners to bring hidden struggles into the light, we emphasize the incredible freedom that comes from aligning life with truth and love as taught by Jesus. Get ready for an inspiring and thought-provoking discussion about living a life of truth that leads to genuine freedom.

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Speaker 1:

Hi friends, welcome to Moments to Ponder. This is a podcast designed to help you spend a few moments in God's Word, gain fresh perspectives and find meaningful takeaways to ponder throughout your week. I'm Betsy Marvin and this is episode 131. Today, we're going to start with a couple of questions. Have you ever been challenged by a speaker in such a way that it made you mad? In such a way that it made you mad? Have you ever been so challenged by a speaker that it left you convicted? They're different, aren't they?

Speaker 1:

I've had the privilege of attending many, many conferences and hearing a variety of speakers. I've heard messages, keynotes, workshops and lectures, and they're all different. There have been confusing ones that left me wishing I just skipped the whole session. The doze-inducing ones that couldn't keep my attention, even with lots of coffee or candy. And then there's the ones trying to sell you on their way of thinking, which basically meant buy my book. And then there's the token controversial one. Each conference seems to have this one speaker that's designed to push your buttons and challenge the norm. And although controversial speakers create heated conversations afterwards, it's the ones that brought a sense of humble discovery or a true sense of conviction that I remember the most.

Speaker 1:

If you've ever heard Francis Chan preach, then you know what I mean. He's a preacher that carries a true sense of conviction, with a tone of voice that carries weight. He speaks with a sense of urgency. It's not gentle words and soft inflection. It's honest and a bit raw, with a no-nonsense delivery. When you hear a message from a speaker like that, you have no doubt that he or she fully believes what they're saying and want you to believe it as well, not because of their book or their platform, but because they believe it will be beneficial, even transforming, for you, the listener.

Speaker 1:

As we continue, john 8,. This is how I hear the voice of Jesus. He's speaking to a mob of people in a temple court and they're restless. Pharisees have left with their heads down and a woman has been set free. They've heard Jesus declare that he is the living water and the light of the world. It's all been a bit controversial and they have just dropped their stones from the adulterous woman, thinking they were going to stone. So they still have some adrenaline flowing. Jesus knows his time is limited, so this isn't a time of touchy feely. This isn't an easy conversation, but one of conviction and urgency and, like many speakers who tell us what we don't want to hear. It was making some of the listeners mad, while others were feeling convicted. I've chosen to use the message translation this week to help us hear this conversation a bit differently.

Speaker 1:

So we're beginning with verse 21 in John, chapter 8. Then he, jesus, went over the same ground again. I'm leaving and you're going to look for me, but you're missing God in this and are headed for a dead end. There is no way you can come with me. The Jews said so is he going to kill himself? Is that what he means by? You can't come with me?

Speaker 1:

Jesus said You're tied down to the mundane and I'm in touch with what is beyond your horizons. You live in terms of what you see and touch. I'm in touch with what is beyond your horizons. You live in terms of what you see and touch. I'm living on other terms. I told you that you were missing God in all of this. You're at a dead end. If you won't believe I am who I say I am, you're at the dead end of sin. You're missing God in your lives.

Speaker 1:

They said to him just who are you anyway? Jesus said what I've said from the start. I have so many things to say that concern you, judgments to make that affect you. But if you don't accept the trustworthiness of the one who commanded my words and acts, none of it matters. Words and acts, none of it matters. That is who you're questioning, not me, but the one who sent me.

Speaker 1:

They still didn't get it, didn't realize that he was referring to the Father. So Jesus tried again. When you raise up the Son of man, then you will know who I am, that I'm not making this up of man. Then you will know who I am, that I'm not making this up, but speaking only what the Father taught me. The one who sent me stays with me. He doesn't abandon me. He sees how much joy I take in pleasing him. When he put it in these terms, many people decided to believe. Then Jesus turned to the Jews who had claimed to believe in him. We'll come back to unpack this statement later, but for now let's continue with verse 33.

Speaker 1:

Surprised they said but we're descendants of Abraham, we've never been slaves to anyone. How can you say? The truth will free you, jesus said. I tell you most solemnly that anyone who chooses a life of sin is trapped in a dead-end life and is in fact, a slave. A slave can't come and go at will. The son, though, has an established position the run of the house. So if the son sets you free, you are free through and through.

Speaker 1:

I know you're Abraham's descendants, but I also know that you're trying to kill me because my message hasn't yet penetrated your thick skulls. I'm talking about things I have seen while keeping company with my father, and you just go on doing what you've heard from your father. They were indignant. Our father is Abraham. Jesus said if you were Abraham's children, you would have been doing the things Abraham did. And yet here you are trying to kill me, a man who has spoken to you the truth. He got straight from God. Abraham never did that sort of thing. You persisted repeating the works of your father. They said we're not bastards. We have a legitimate father, the one and only God. If God were your father, said Jesus, you would love me, for I came from God and arrived here. I didn't come on my own. He sent me.

Speaker 1:

Why can't you understand one word I say? Here's why you can't handle it. You're from your father, the devil, and all you want to do is please him. He was a killer from the very start, he couldn't stand the truth because there wasn't a shred of truth in him. When the liar speaks, he makes it up out of his lying nature and fills the world with lies. I arrive on the scene, tell you the plain truth, and you refuse to have a thing to do with me. Truth and you refuse to have a thing to do with me. Can any one of you convict me of a single misleading word or single sinful act? But if I'm telling the truth, why don't you believe me? Anyone on God's side listens to God's words. This is why you're not listening, because you're not on God's side.

Speaker 1:

The Jews then said that settles it. We were right all along when we called you a Samaritan and said you were a crazy demon possessed. Jesus said I'm not crazy. I simply honor my father. While you dishonor me, I'm not trying to get anything for myself. God intends something gloriously grand here and is making the decisions that will bring it about. I say this with absolute confidence. If you practice what I'm telling you, you will never have to look death in the face.

Speaker 1:

At this point the Jews said now we know you're crazy. Abraham died, the prophets died and you show up saying if you practice what I'm telling you. You'll never have to face death, not even a taste. Are you greater than Abraham, who died and the prophets died? Who do you think you are? Abraham who died and the prophets died? Who do you think you are?

Speaker 1:

Jesus said if I were striving to get all the attention, it wouldn't amount to anything. But my father the same one you say, is your father put me here at this time and place of splendor. You haven't recognized him in this. You haven't recognized him in this, but I have. If I, in false modesty, said I didn't know what was going on, I would be as much of a liar as you are. But I do know and I am doing what he says. Abraham, your father, with elated faith, looked down the corridors of history and saw my day coming. He saw it and cheered. The Jews said you're not even 50 years old. And Abraham saw you Believe me, said Jesus, I am who I am Long before Abraham was anything that did it, that pushed him over the edge. They picked up rocks to throw at him, but Jesus slipped away, getting out of the temple. It's quite an exchange, isn't it? Calling them children of the devil, using the word I am. So it's so clear that Jesus is saying he is God, calling on their history with Abraham and all that's going on.

Speaker 1:

There's so much we could unpack in this section. You can hear the edge in the voices coming from both sides as Jesus tries again and again to help them see who he is. The crowd holds on to its literal thinking and Jesus is pushing them to look deeper. There's more. He speaks of his father, but the God he's speaking of doesn't mesh with the God they think they know, which led Jesus to exclaim you're at a dead end. If you won't believe, I am who I say I am. You're at the dead end of sins. You're missing God in your lives, which to say to Abraham's children was a big deal. They really felt that being Jewish made them children of God. They felt they had God in their lives already. Yet Jesus is making it very clear that their ancestry won't save them. Maybe you've seen this play out in your world.

Speaker 1:

Someone assumes that because they're the daughter of the owner or the nephew of a company president, that they have a guaranteed position and can ride on the coattails of their relative and everything will be great. But that assumption is often false. As they realize, they do have to work their way up just like everyone else. This is the case with the Jews. They have to come to believe in God's son, just as Abraham did. They knew of God, but they don't know God, which is often the challenge for us. We have to come to know Jesus ourselves and it's a discovery process, going from faith in Christ, which is the salvation, the forgiveness, to the faith of Christ, the one who has the faith of Christ, in God, in his character, forgiveness, his love and his freedom. It's a shift as we mature in our faith.

Speaker 1:

Now I've heard the words freedom in Christ for as long as I can remember honestly and I thought I had it down. I thought I had it in my life and I did to a point I knew I was forgiven for sin, free from spiritual death and given the gift of eternal life, and I really felt that that was freedom and it is. Yet when I read books or heard different speakers, they seemed to understand freedom differently. It just felt like they had more. Now I know that in verse 34, jesus said I tell you most solemnly that anyone who chooses a life of sin is trapped in a dead-end life and is, in fact, a slave. I haven't ever been a literal slave, thankfully, but Jesus is speaking of slavery to sin here, and to that I can relate. Even after I accepted Christ, there were lies and fears that had deep holds on me, shame and darkness, and it held me captive, even though I had Jesus. And when I looked at those faces of people who had life-changing freedom in Jesus, it was contagious. I wanted to figure out how they had got there and I didn't really get it.

Speaker 1:

Tragically, not every Christian experiences the freedom that I'm talking about. It can never be found except by abiding in God's word and being Jesus's disciple, just as he said. If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you're my disciples for sure. Then you'll experience for yourselves the truth. The truth will free you. As I studied this in my pursuit of figuring out more about freedom, I remember that in John 14, 6, jesus will say I am the way, the truth and the life. He is the truth that frees us. And when we experience him, experience the truth and walk in the way that he teaches us, well, that brings a freedom beyond what we currently understand sometimes. And Jesus, the light in the darkness, the living water, he's the one who frees us. So in my pursuit of this, I started to list the things that I knew were true, what I learned through Jesus' teaching.

Speaker 1:

True is like you're a treasured creation of God. You are loved and called to love others. You have value just because you're his. Your worth transcends any action you may do. Nothing is so shameful or dark that he cannot bring light. And when we bring things into light, as he is that light, the darkness cannot stand against it. You're forgiven. There's no condemnation, no judgment in him. Truth is love, god is love, and that love will sacrifice his life, taking our sin and shame and offering us life with him eternally in return.

Speaker 1:

Freedom and truth intertwined. Freedom is only found in truth, and truth is the foundation for that freedom. And the more we discover what we need to be freed from by looking deeper and deeper into the truth, the more free we become. We see this played out when we finally allow a secret to be shared or a fear to be acknowledged or a shame to be confessed, and when we bring it into the light, all of its power fades Because it's in the powerful presence of him. Confession is freeing. Confession is freeing. We're seeing this take place in revivals across college campuses, as students receive the wonder of freedom that comes from confession. Dear one, when we are free, when our spirits are open and alight with the truth, living in the fully known and loved wonder of who God is confident that his perfect love casts out all fear, we begin to step in the wonder of living in his freedom.

Speaker 1:

This chapter began with a crowd ready to stone a woman because of her sin, and it closes with a crowd wanting to stone Jesus because he never sinned. That seems a little crazy, right, but that's our world. It struggles with that kind of freedom, with that kind of love. It likes darkness and secrets and control and entitlement of love. It likes darkness and secrets and control and entitlement. It seems backwards, yet somehow we accept people who do things wrong more than we love people who do things right. Yeah, try to unpack that. Jesus offers us an incredible way to live, walking the way that he taught us, with an understanding and wonder of who he made us, and that brings freedom. It's a discovery process and I encourage you if there is something that needs to be brought into the light, do the hard thing, bring it out. Where it can have no hold on you, may you walk in the light this week, amen.