Speaker 1: 0:00

Good morning. You can open up to John, chapter 8. So we're going to be picking up from verse 31 of John, chapter 8 and going through verse 47 this morning. So I will read it. I'll be reading from the ESV, as we always do, and I encourage you to follow along in the Bible or to follow along on the screen. This is beginning in verse 31.

Speaker 1: 0:33

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. Jesus answered them. 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're offspring of Abraham, yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you.

Speaker 1: 1:20

I speak of what I've 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 murder 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 you the truth, you do not believe me. Which 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 word of the Lord.

Speaker 1: 2:59

The book of John gives us a thesis statement about what the whole purpose of its writing is for right, and this comes at the end of our book. And it gives us this wonderful summary statement. No other book in the Bible gives us such a clear statement about its purpose. John gives us his purpose statement in John 20, that the purpose for which he's writing these particular stories and these particular words is so that his readers would believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing in him they would have life in his name. Right?

Speaker 1: 3:37

If you were with us last year, you know that we continued pointing back to this passage, and every single passage that we read through from John in some way or another has to make sense with this purpose statement. It has to fit in here, and I would say a lot of the things we've gone through already in John are really focused on Jesus's identity as the Christ and putting that forth for us. This passage for us does some of that as well, but I think it also makes us ask the question what is belief? If you look back at verse 30 from Royce's sermon last week, it ended with this verse, right? So as Jesus is saying all the things he says, saying I'm the light of the world, saying I don't need another person to bear witness about me, god bears witness with me about who I am, at the end of that whole dialogue, john closes with this little summary, right? And he says as Jesus was saying these things this is in verse 30, as Jesus was saying these things, many believed in him. Okay, this isn't the Jews saying that they believe. This is John, right? And and as Bible believers, who say this is God's word and that God's hand is at work in the writing of these words, we would say John has some unique spiritual guidance in his view on the matters. And yet, when John pens these words down, john is the one that says they believed in him.

Speaker 1: 5:12

And yet, as we see from the dialogue I just read for us, how is it that John can say they believed, and yet Jesus says to them you're of your father, the devil. How can both of those statements be true? Well, because, as you know, with plenty of words, they have more than one meaning or they have layers of meaning, right? So I can say I believe that Jake is very strong, very physically strong, right? I can very easily say that statement when I don't have to rely upon his strength. Yet if we were in a pool and we were playing chicken and I had to sit on his shoulders, my belief would be tested at that point. Right, my level of belief might falter a little bit when I actually have to rely on his strength versus just being able to say I believe in him. Right, there's different depths of what it means to believe, and John puts this passage for us as a meditation on belief because, as he says, right, but by this belief in Jesus that's where life comes from.

Speaker 1: 6:28

So John is willing to say these words and willing to place these words in the Jews that they believe in Jesus. So in verse 31, jesus responds to these Jews that believe in him. And if you don't know, the Jews is John's terminology for talking about the leaders, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. He rarely uses those phrases, like the other gospels do. He chooses to use the word the Jews to refer to the Jewish leaders who are against him. So Jesus says this to those leaders.

Speaker 1: 7:04

He says if you abide in my word, if you don't know what abide is, it means to remain, to dwell in right. You can think of the word abode. It's a place that you dwell in. Right, if you remain, if you dwell, if you stay in my word, that's what it means to be my disciples. And that totally makes sense. Right, if I were to define it this way, what does it mean to follow someone? It means to follow what they tell you and do what they do. Right, that's just the simplest, bare bones definition. That's like saying one plus one is two. You don't have to do much thinking to say if you follow a person's commands for you, you are a follower of that person.

Speaker 1: 7:52

Right, if you remain in my word, and you'll remember that Jesus has already kind of teased this out earlier in the gospel of John, because John chapter six had an interesting, because John chapter six had an interesting story where Jesus tells the people, tells his followers, to eat his body and drink his blood, at which point many people decide to leave and abandon following Jesus. Right, maybe they were on board for part of his ministry, but as soon as he started saying crazy things like that, they were like I'm good. Right, maybe they were on board for part of his ministry, but as soon as he started saying crazy things like that, they were like I'm good. Right, he says you have to not just believe at the one time, but you have to remain in me, remain in the things I say, abide, stay in what I say. And that's what it means to be my disciples, and if you are my disciples, you will know the truth, and that truth will set you free. So how do the Jews who believed in him respond? They answer back in verse 33. We're offspring of Abraham and I've never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say you will become free? The Jews immediately questioned Jesus' word. Right? He just said to them if you want to follow me, you have to remain in what I tell you to do. He just told them to do something. And what do they do? They immediately respond back with questions with I don't get it right.

Speaker 1: 9:26

Yesterday I was at work and we had one of our kitchen managers. He's out of town right now, and so we had, like, another kitchen manager from another BJ's come in and it's this brand new BJ's that they opened in Tracy, and so, since they're a brand new opening, they've been, I guess, dotting all their I's and crossing all their T's. They're doing it right. So this manager comes to our restaurant, where we, of course, are not doing things right all the time, and we're in this transition period where I was sending the next server on break and I was taking over her tables. So she explains to me okay, I have this party of 12 and they have this food coming out and I have this party over here. I'm like, great, great, great, I'll take care of it.

Speaker 1: 10:12

So I go into the kitchen and the kid's food is coming out. This is a common thing you do in the restaurant. If I approach your table and it's parents and a five-year-old and three-year-old, we're going to try to get in food for the five-year-old and three-year-old as soon as possible. Get them calm so that you can actually think about what you eat, right? So I go into the kitchen and I am looking for their food and their ticket comes up of all the kids' food. So we start preparing the food on the line to carry it out to them and I notice one of the items on the ticket is missing.

Speaker 1: 10:44

So as I notice it's missing, I tell the kitchen manager who's right there and I say, hey, I'm missing this item. Can you make sure we make another one? And it comes out. He says, great, I'll take care of it, right? So he tells the cooks hey, I need another boneless wings on the fly. I'm going to have some angry kids if you don't get it right now, right? So I carry out the rest of the food. I tell the table hey, it'll just be a few more minutes for that last plate. They messed up on it. It's missing in the window, but we have another one coming. Okay, they're calm, I go back. I run some more food. Now the adult plates are coming out and the last kid plate still hasn't come out yet. It's been like 10 minutes. So I go back to the table and they're like, hey, where's this kid's plate? And I'm like I'll go check on it. My bad.

Speaker 1: 11:33

I go into the kitchen, tell the kitchen manager and he's just been hounding the cooks right, I need this plate, I need this plate. They get some boneless wings. They're coming out of the fryer and instead of plating them for a kid's plate, they decide to throw it in a bowl of buffalo sauce and toss it and make their next order. And he says to them I just told you I needed that. I've been telling you for the last 15 minutes what I need you to do and you're not doing it right. He just blows up on them and they're just silent. Anyways, it takes another 10 minutes for the boneless wings to come out. The table is not super happy that everyone had finished their food before their kids' food came out.

Speaker 1: 12:10

Yeah, so I bring that story up to say this right, this manager is telling them I need you to do this for me, and instead of just my manager's telling me I need to do it, I need to do it. I need to not be looking for a ticket, I need to not be thinking about anything else, I just this needs to be done. He knows best, I'm going to do it. I need to not be thinking about anything else, I just this needs to be done. He knows best, I'm going to do it. Instead of doing that, they just decide to carry on with their own busy schedule because they have a full screen. Right? That's kind of what happens here.

Speaker 1: 12:42

Right, jesus just tells them remain in my word and you'll know the truth, and the truth will set you free. And what's the first thing they do is not remain in this word. The first thing they do is say question. This doesn't make sense with me. This doesn't add up with what I think should be true. Right, because obviously, if they accept Jesus's word, they accept the implication that they are enslaved without him, and they don't like that implication. They don't like that implication. They don't like hearing that if being in you means we will attain the truth, that must mean I currently don't have the truth and that must mean that I am currently enslaved if this truth will set me free. And they don't like what that means, and that's why they double down and say we're of Abraham, we already have the truth, we're already a free people.

Speaker 1: 13:32

Ironically, if you know the Jewish story, their storyline is a story of people who are constantly in enslavement. Right, the Assyrian Empire, the Babylonian Empire, then the Greek Empire, then the Roman Empire. They're enslaved to everyone. And yet here they are saying we're not enslaved to anyone. How can you make us free? Seems funny, right? It's probably because what they have in mind is we are the privileged people who are of Abraham, and because we are of Abraham, we experience all of Abraham's blessings, all of his privileges. We don't have to worry about who is our leader, that we're under at the moment, because God is the leader over them. We are spiritually set apart, we are spiritually better than we are spiritually free, and they don't want to hear that they are enslaved without Jesus.

Speaker 1: 14:33

So Jesus clarifies, right, as he does many times in the book of John, and he tells them what he means when he says that they are enslaved. And he says this is what I mean, that you're enslaved, that everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. If you continue doing these habits, then you are not in control of those habits. Those habits are in control of you. Your lifestyle of sin enslaves you to itself. This is something Paul later writes about in Romans, chapter six, when he says you are either a slave to sin or you're, under Christ, a slave to righteousness, but you have to serve someone With your life. You are serving something, someone, and it's just a matter of what you are enslaved to. You can either be free to then freely serve and freely enslave yourself to Jesus Christ and the righteousness found in him, or you're stuck in enslavement to the sin that you're in.

Speaker 1: 15:38

You'll remember in Royce's passage last week that there was this section where Jesus says hey, I'm going away and you can't come with me. I'm from above and you're from below, and he says this in chapter 8, verse 24,. Jesus says to them I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins. Jesus puts it very clearly in front of them. If you're with me, you will not die in your sins, you will be free from sin. But if you reject me, if you are not in me, you will die in your sins. You will be free from sin. But if you reject me, if you are not in me, you will die in your sins. You are enslaved to your sin and there is no escape from sin other than through Jesus. That's Jesus' own claim about himself. Right, it's only through me that you will actually find a freedom. It is only through me that you will actually find a forgiveness from the penalty, from the punishment of sin. It's only in Jesus this is his own words, his own claim about his own self-identity it's only in me. The slave does not remain in the house forever. The son remains forever. So if the son sets you free, you will be free.

Speaker 1: 16:51

Indeed, now they just brought up Abraham, tying together this idea of slavery and sonship with Abraham. You might remember that Abraham didn't just have his one promised child. He actually had two children. One of them was the son of the slave woman, hagar, and the other was the son of his child. He actually had two children. One of them was the son of the slave woman, hagar, and the other was the son of his wife, isaac.

Speaker 1: 17:16

Right, and within Abraham's own storyline, you have this tension that arises between these two sons, ishmael and Isaac, and in that story Sarah gets a little jealous for her son and she tells Abraham hey, I want you to kick out the slave and the son of the slave so that my son will remain and have all the inheritance, have all the blessing land on him. Right, the son of the slave woman is kicked out. The slave does not remain in the house, the son remains. And now Jesus has already said you're only receiving this freedom through me. So what is he saying to the Jews right, the Jews who pride themselves on? We are the chosen people from Abraham, we are of Abraham, isaac and Jacob, we are the sons of freedom. He turns the narrative around and says no, you're actually a son of the slave, you're actually part of team Ishmael, not part of team Isaac. Right, team Isaac, team promised children, team faith children are through me. I am now the way I know.

Speaker 1: 18:33

I like to rave on movies. One of my favorite movies I've pointed this out a few times is Dune, part 2, right, and there's this really awesome scene gives me goosebumps every time I watch it. So if you don't know the story of Dune, there's like this Messiah-like figure in the story and this one part. He enters into this council meeting and they have a particular ritual that no one can speak in the council unless they are one of the heads of the tribes. And so if you want to speak, you have to kill one of the tribal leaders. And so he walks into the council and stands in the middle and they say you have to take my life if you want to speak. It's the only way. And he says I am the way, I'm leading the way.

Speaker 1: 19:19

Now, right, I'm the chosen one and I get to determine how we do things from here on out. Right, they have always found their identity in Abraham Isaac and Jacob, and they are God's people through Abraham Isaac and Jacob, and they are God's people through Abraham Isaac and Jacob. But Jesus is saying something crazy now. He's saying it's not just about being part of Abraham Isaac and Jacob, it's about being part of me. And if you're not a part of me, you are not a part of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. You are a son of the slave, and the slave does not remain in God's house. I do, and I determine who I set free, and those whom the son sets free are free. Indeed, jesus is willing to concede and allow them to own their physical descendantship of Abraham. He says in verse 37, I know that you are 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.

Speaker 1: 20:36

Jesus has already said this a few times, and this has been a common theme through John, that he does what his father does because his father does it. He follows in the way of his father and he believes implicitly here that they follow in the way of his father, and he believes implicitly here that they follow in the way of their father. Right, you follow after the person that you model, that you look up to, that you admire, and the person you admire is the person you will imitate. And even though they are physically children of Abraham, he creates a category distinction. This is a category distinction that Paul actually makes in his letters as well, in one of our favorite chapters in Romans.

Speaker 1: 21:25

In Romans, chapter 9, paul makes this statement when he's talking about the Jews and the Gentiles and their relationship to Christ. I don't have this on the screen. Paul says this in Romans, chapter nine. He says this is Romans nine, verse six, if you want to look it up. He says for not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel. So there's two different types of Israel. Not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but through Isaac shall your offspring be named. This means that it is not children of the flesh, not the physical descendants, who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.

Speaker 1: 22:12

Earlier in Romans, in Romans chapter four, he kind of equates that children of promise to children of faith. Right that through faith you are part of the promised children of God and this is not tied to you physically being descendant from Abraham. And Jesus seems to be doing the same thing here. Jesus seems to be creating a distinction between physical parentage and spiritual parentage. I grew up with both of my parents in my household. Not everyone has that same privilege, right? We still find people that we latch onto as parental figures or as figures who we admire or who we look to for help or who we look to for guidance. It's common to have that idea of a spiritual parent for you, maybe someone who led you to the faith, someone who you trust in, who you go to for guidance, for counsel, someone you look to, and you can have that, even if you have physical parents. Right, you can have someone that this is my physical father, but I have other people that I look to for guidance as well, and those people help me determine my life choices. Right, jesus is willing to concede you have physical ties to Abraham, but you clearly do not follow Abraham, because Abraham did not try to seek to kill those who brought the word of God right.

Speaker 1: 23:45

And yet verse 39, they double down. They're not willing to take Jesus' point and adopt the fatherhood that he implies to them. Instead, they double down and say no, no, no, abraham is our father. We're sure of it, man, and we follow in the steps of Abraham. We're not just physically descended from Abraham. We do what Abraham did. We are holy like Abraham. Is we obey the commands of God the way Abraham did? We are holy like Abraham, is we obey the commands of God the way Abraham did? And this is what Jesus says in response. Right, 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. What did Abraham do? Right?

Speaker 1: 24:34

You might remember Genesis 15, 6, a very important passage for the New Testament, where it says that Abraham believed in God and that that belief was counted. It was credited to him as righteousness. So Abraham believed in God At the summation of his life. In Genesis 26, verse 5, it says that Abraham obeyed all the commands, all the statutes, all the rules of God.

Speaker 1: 25:01

In Genesis 18, a story that sometimes we might not think of when we think of Abraham's story arc there's this really odd story where Abraham is approached by God in the form of a man and two of his angels. This is right before the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham is approached by God in the form of a human being, and what does he do when God approaches him? He welcomes him, he serves him, he does what he can to make God in the flesh have a hospitable visit with him. Right? Abraham responds to God's physical manifestation by welcoming him. What are these people doing to Jesus? And, by the way, if you didn't notice, jesus is implying that he is that same physical manifestation of God. Right, and what are they trying to do to him? Are they welcoming him? Are they obeying his word? Are they remaining abiding in his word? Are they knowing the truth through him? No, they're questioning him, they're posing questions, they are seeking to kill him because he frustrates them, because he disrupts their order, because he disrupts their entire system. You are doing the works your father did, and by now, he still hasn't told them. He's kind of leading the discussion, though.

Speaker 1: 26:25

How many of you have heard of what's called the Socratic method? You know what the Socratic method is? Okay, the Socratic method. If you don't know, there's a Greek philosopher named Socrates, right, the Socratic method. If you don't know, there's a Greek philosopher named Socrates. Right, socrates, he'd have these lengthy dialogues with people, and when he'd have these dialogues, he would pretty much guide the discussion by asking questions. Right, so you would make a statement and Socrates would disagree with it, and so he would lead you through 20, 30 questions, all leading you down a path that brings you to the conclusion he wants you to conclude. Right, he is using questions to guide the discussion.

Speaker 1: 27:06

Jesus is doing something similar here. Right, he's leading them on. You do what your father did. You do the works your father did. He's not telling them they should get it. If they're smart, right, they should get what he means. We follow our father who seeks to kill. Who's the one who seeks to kill? At the end of the day? Right, they should get what he's saying. But they don't want to admit it and they want to keep insisting that they are the righteous people of God. We are of Abraham, we are spiritually of Abraham, we are of God.

Speaker 1: 27:38

And notice the very next thing. They say right, they move Abraham out of the discussion for a second. They say you know what? Forget it. Children of Israel, whatever, we are not born of sexual immorality. We have a pure lineage and we have one father, even God. Right, we're children of Israel, we're children of Abraham, we're children of God by our identity in Israel. And they have good grounds to make that statement right. Because in Exodus, chapter four, god tells Moses go, tell Pharaoh, let my people go, because Israel is my firstborn son.

Speaker 1: 28:17

In Jeremiah 31, the prophet says, or God says through the prophet for I am a father to Israel and Ephraim is my firstborn. Right, he makes this claim that God is making this claim that Israel is his own. And this isn't the only times we get this. In the Old Testament this is a common occurrence. There's other words that are used to describe the relationship between God and his people, but father is one of those, and they like that one and they want to claim that one.

Speaker 1: 28:47

In this discussion, in this debate. We're of God, we're sure of it. Jesus, not happy with their conclusion, says really, if you were of God, if God were your father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You're of your father the devil Fighting words now. Now he's made it explicit, right, he was just implying it earlier. He's made it explicit and he's going to make sure that they know it and they know it clearly. You're of your father the devil, who was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him, and when he lies, that's what he does, because that's who he is. He lies because he is a liar.

Speaker 1: 29:45

Verse 45 is frightening. He says but because I tell you the truth, you do not believe in me. He doesn't just say although I'm telling you the truth, you do not believe in me. He doesn't just say although I'm telling you the truth, you're not believing it. He says because it's causal, because I am telling you the truth. That's why you're not believing in me. You are rebuking, you are going against what I'm telling you, because what I tell you is truth. You are put off by the truth. You would rather live in lies than live in the truth, and that's why, when I speak to you, you disregard what I tell you, because what I'm telling you is true.

Speaker 1: 30:27

Now, plenty of us are familiar with the story arc from Genesis 3, right, where God says to Abraham. God says to Adam and Eve don't eat from the fruit of this tree, because if you eat of the fruit from this tree, you will surely die on that day. And what does the serpent come in to say? You're not going to die. Okay, either God's a liar or you are right. They can't both be true. Right, he's a liar and he's a murderer, right?

Speaker 1: 31:01

This comes from the very next story of Cain and Abel, and within Cain and Abel's story there's plenty of ties that are showing that Cain's living out the same spirit of the serpent. In Genesis, chapter three, verse one, it says that the spirit spirit, the serpent is the most crafty beast of the field. And when you go into the very next chapter, where does Cain take his brother to kill him? Into the field. There's a literary tie that's being made there that the serpent is in the field. Cain brings his brother out into the field. There's a literary tie that's being made there that the serpent is in the field. Cain brings his brother out into the field to kill him. God warns Cain before he kills him and says watch out, sin is crouching at the door looking to devour you. He paints sin like an animal that is trying to approach him. Sin has a personification. It's the personification of the serpent.

Speaker 1: 32:02

In the last chapter, cain's actions are a carry through or a carry out of the serpent's will in the people. Right, cain's murder comes from the serpent's evil desires and evil will. And Jesus is tying the serpent to the devil in this story. Right, he was a murder from the beginning. He's a liar and that's why you're rejecting me, because that's actually your spiritual heritage. Your spiritual parentage is a liar and a murder and that's why you're seeking to murder me, because you're from a murder, and that's why you cannot abide in my word, which is true, because you're of a liar and you reject the truth whenever possible. That's the claim that Jesus makes about them, and so he closes with these last two verses in this section.

Speaker 1: 33:01

Which of you convicts me of sin? They all thought he was a sinner. They all didn't like the things. But who can actually bring forth a conviction? Who can actually prove his sin before him? And Jesus there is implying you can't, because I'm sinless right. Which of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? I'll give you your answer, because whoever is of God hears the words of God, my words. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.

Speaker 1: 33:45

Notice that he's tying the words of God to his own words. At the beginning of his dialogue, he says if you abide in my word, you'll know the truth. And now he's saying his word is God's word and the reason why they cannot receive them, hear them. The word hear, in Hebrew and in Greek alike, both has this connotation of not just auditory, you know, coming in, but it's actually responding to it as well as hearing and walking it out as well. The reason why you're not receiving what I'm saying as true and the reason why you're not receiving it and living it out is because you're not actually of God as you think you are. You think you're of Abraham. You think you're of God. You think you're the saved people, that you don't need a savior. You think you're a free people that do not need me to free you from the enslavement. You have to sin. That's your problem, and you reject me because you're not actually of God. I think these words are shocking for the Jews, but I think they should also be shocking for us. If you claim to be a child of God, if you claim to believe in God, right, because this whole passage has been a meditation on what does it mean to believe right?

Speaker 1: 35:07

Believing isn't just lightly taking his statements to be true in some cases and not all. It's not just following him for the ones you find convenient. It's following him. It's following all the things that he says. And there are very many of us of Christians who like to pick and choose, who like certain statements Jesus makes, but not all of them. There's plenty of people who find in Jesus something of truth, who say and even from non-Christians who will look at Jesus' teachings and say, yeah, I like the guy. He said some good things. Do you like all the things he said? Do you follow all the things he said? Do you take all of them to be true? Do you like the one where he said all of them to be true? Do you like the one where he said love your enemy, or do you just like the idea of it? Do you like the idea of humbly serving the poor, but you reject the ones where it says I'm the only way to life To follow Jesus, to remain in Jesus, to believe in Jesus, is to buy into all of it, to take him as a whole.

Speaker 1: 36:16

If we are followers of God, this is what he's saying in this whole conversation to the Jews, which I think is an important work that should be received in our own hearts as well. If we are followers of God, why do they not receive what God says is true? If they are followers of God, why do they not do? Why do they not practice what he says for them to practice, what he says for them to do? Are they going to practice sin and do sin and be enslaved to sin and serve sin, or are they going to do what God says? Are they going to be servants of God, following what God commands them to do as his people? And here's the only true command that he's placed in this section, for this passage, it's to remain, to remain in his word, right? It kind of leads you on when you're looking back at verse 31 and 32. He says if you remain in my word, you're my disciples. That word will lead you into freedom. That word will lead you into freedom. That word will lead you to know the truth, which is himself, and that word will lead you into freedom.

Speaker 1: 37:37

If we are followers of God, if we are children of God, we do what he says, we believe what he says, we walk it out when he pushes on them and he says if you're a follower and you don't do what he says, if you're a follower and you don't believe him, the answer is simple. Jesus' answer to the Jews is this If you're not following what I'm telling you, it's because you're not of God. And I think those are important and convicting for us at times. Right. And of course there's a distinction that should be made with nuance, that it's not just the one-time slip-ups, the way Peter had slip-ups. Following Jesus. Peter was clearly following Jesus, but he had clearly way too many mistakes. And yet Jesus forgives him on those right. But are you making a practice of following him or are you not? And for Jesus it's clear If you are following in him, you are following God, and if you are not, you are not of God. So this whole passage brings us back to that statement I brought us to at the beginning.

Speaker 1: 38:48

In John chapter 20, right In John chapter 20, all of John's gospel is written so that you would believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that by believing in him you'd have life in his name. So what is the type of belief? What is that type of belief that leads to life? The belief that leads to life is the belief that receives Jesus as the truth. He's not just saying true things, he is the truth. Later in John's gospel, you have this interesting scenario between Jesus and Pilate, and Pilate's pretty much like hey, are you the king, as you say you are. And Jesus says yeah, I'm the king. Those who are of the truth come to me.

Speaker 1: 39:39

And this idea of Jesus as the truth. He's not just speaking words that are categorically true that are propositional truth statements. He is claiming himself to be the truth statement. Right, john says this at the beginning of his gospel. At the intro of his gospel, in John chapter one, he says the law came through Moses, grace and truth come through Jesus Christ. And one of our favorites verses from John's gospel I am the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me.

Speaker 1: 40:18

To abide in Jesus's word is to know the truth, not just because he's going to tell you the truth, but because he is the truth. If you know him, you know what is true, and that truth will set you free. Jesus is the truth. That's what he claims of himself, and in him is the way to the abundant life. In him is what John says that through believing in him we would have life in his name. The life that is found for God's people is found through that type of belief in Jesus, the type of belief that takes Jesus's whole identity to be true, the type of belief that says what Jesus says about himself is what is, and the type of belief that follows Jesus in what he says and what he does. As Jesus follows and imitates his father, we also ought to follow imitate Jesus, because Jesus is the truth, and that truth will set us free. Let's pray will set us free. Let's pray.

Speaker 1: 41:39

Heavenly Father, god, we glorify you, lord, we thank you for who you are, who you say you are, who you say we are in you, lord, that it is because you are truth, that you are freedom and it is because we are in you that we get to know the truth and that we ourselves can experience that same freedom. Lord, we thank you for coming to us, for being with us, for bringing us into your family, that you get to declare who is part of the family and who is not. And you receive all those who come to you and desire to be with you. That all who come to you and accept you as Lord, as Savior, as King, you receive. You've made those promises clear in your word. That you do not turn away, you do not reject those who truly accept you, who truly receive you as who you say.

Speaker 1: 42:32

You are God, you are the truth, you are what truth is. You are an embodiment of all that is true, and that truth is experienced through your grace as well, lord, we thank you for that, god, and we thank you that in you we can experience freedom, because you have accepted us, because you have received us. We thank you for your word. We thank you for your powers, your word. We ask that you would shape us through your spirit, through your word, to love you more, to walk with you more, to abide in your spirit, through your word, to love you more, to walk with you more, to abide in your word, to trust you for who you are, bear fruits in our life. We thank you, god, and in your name we pray Amen.