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Hey, everybody.

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Thanks for being with us.

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Back into it.

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And the Gospel of John, chapter eight,
verse 39.

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Just a reminder here.

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Jesus is having an ongoing conversation

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slash debate and soon to be

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maybe even conflict with,

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with others.

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And so

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we're in a, a section here where John

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portrays a kind of heated exchange.

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At least, maybe not heated,

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but Jesus is saying increasingly difficult
and and probably offensive things,

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and we will get another layer into that
today as we start reading in verse 39.

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Then we'll come back and try to unpack
some of it.

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They answered him, Abraham is our father.

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Jesus said to them, If Abraham,
if you were Abraham's

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children, you'd be doing what Abraham did.

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But now you're trying to kill me.

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A man who's told you the
truth that I heard from God.

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That is not what Abraham did.

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You are
indeed doing what your father does.

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They said to him,
we're not illegitimate children.

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We have one father, God himself.

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Jesus said to them,
If God were your father,

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you would love me, for
I came from God, and now I am here.

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I did not come on my own, but he sent me.

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Why do you not understand what I say?

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It is because you cannot accept my word.

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You are from your father.

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The devil.

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And you choose to do your father's desire.

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He was a murderer from the beginning

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and does not stand in the truth,
because there's no truth in him.

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When he lies,
he speaks according to his own nature.

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For he's a liar and the father of lies.

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But because I tell you the truth,
you do not believe me.

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Which of you convicts me of sin?

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If I tell the truth,
why do you not believe me?

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Whoever is from God hears the word of God.

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The reason you do not hear them
is that you are not from God.

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So if you were with us yesterday,

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Or if you go back and listen to yesterday,
that this Michael

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is a pretty significant
step up in the rhetoric, Jesus really

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dials it up here as he confronts
these people who are challenging him.

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Now, if it sounds harsh on Jesus

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part, keep in mind that I think

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John has told us no fewer than

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three times, possibly

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four already, that they are looking for
a way to kill Jesus and in one,

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in one instance, attempted to kill Jesus.

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So Jesus is not the only one here

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involved in a serious, conflict.

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The people are angry and bitterly
unhappy with Jesus.

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And so, in the midst of this,

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Jesus confronts them with this idea

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of why they don't believe
and essentially says

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they don't believe
because they're not from God.

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Now, you want to be careful here,
because the Gospel of John also allows

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for the possibility of belief, believing,

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as we've made a case in this book,
is one of the fundamental themes.

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So it's not that they can't believe.

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I don't think that's the point here.

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It's that in choosing not to,
they betray themselves

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as not interested in truth,
but instead interested in untruth.

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In what? In lies in in

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in what isn't of God.

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And that,
according to Jesus, convicts them

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even as they try to convict him of sin.

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And, yeah, Michael, I think we really,

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we really kind of ratchet up
the language here.

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We are hitting very close to home here,
because what we're doing in

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the text is seeing how the crowd
is really moving

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to the next level of this argument
with Jesus.

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And it gets really, really close to home.

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Right at the beginning.

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They say, you know, Abraham is our father.

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This is identity stuff.

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This is who we claim as
the source is the center as the beginning.

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You know that this is right
at the core of who they are.

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And then Jesus just really firing you.

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The heart of it says,

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if you're Abraham's children,
then you would be doing what Abraham did.

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And here you are.

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You're trying to kill
the one that God has sent you in.

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John's telling you the story, Clint.

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Jesus is the one who fulfills
the covenant.

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Jesus is the one.

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The word with God,
even at the very beginning,

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but also the one who was promised
to fulfill God's

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faithfulness to Abraham
and all of his descendants.

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So now that Jesus is walking on the earth
and the people who claim Abraham

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as their father
as the source of their identity,

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they say people are standing
convicted in Jesus's argument

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because they don't see
the one who truly does come

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from God, who fulfills the covenantal
promise to Abraham and

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that would be bad enough.

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The turn that comes here when they say,
hey, listen,

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we're not illegitimate children.

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We've had this over
and over and over again in John, right?

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We're not this is not new to us.

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This idea that they take him literally,
they respond literally.

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And then Jesus moves on to the next
and far more deep and impactful

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interpretation of what is said
when he comes

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down here in verse 44.

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It's going to land hard.

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The reason why they don't understand it,
the reason they can't accept his word.

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You are from your father, not Abraham,

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who they're claiming,
but the devil and Clint.

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That's the moment
when the air gets sucked out of the room.

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If you've been at a party or a meal
and a person, you know,

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things were going relatively well.

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Maybe there were some bumps
in the conversation.

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But then the person says that thing,
and suddenly

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the entire room
is deathly uncomfortably silent.

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That's exactly what happens
the moment that Jesus says that,

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because not only is he calling
the people illegitimate in the sense

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that they were arguing,

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they were talking about, you know, from
where do we come now?

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Jesus is making the spiritual point
that they are actually coming from the

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the devil himself,
but evil itself, evil incarnate,

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that's told in, you know,
the Genesis text, this serpent

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who deceives that this clan is

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without question an offensive statement
to everyone there in the room.

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Now the question is, can you see
in the offense truth or can you not?

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And I think we can tease that out.

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But the way that John tells this,
Jesus goes right for the center.

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Yeah.

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And and again, this is not a
this is not a teaching story.

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This is a full out conflict story.

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And what if Jesus language sounds harsh?

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It is.

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But how do we get there?

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We get there
with people accusing him of deceit,

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who claimed that because they are Jewish,

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because they are
in the lineage of Abraham,

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they are God's people,

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or that they are godly, perhaps even.

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And Jesus is telling them no,
that their lineage does not define

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their faithfulness, that what they believe
and what they see to be true

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is ultimately the measure of whether
they're paying attention to God or not.

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It's not all the laws, it's
not the rituals, it's not the procedures.

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It's their faith and their ability
to discern what God wants of them

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and what God wants of them
is to come to his chosen one, his Messiah.

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And so now Jesus says, you,

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you are from your father, the devil.

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A he was murderous.

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You're trying to murder me and be,
he believes, lies.

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In other words, he he spreads lies.

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He doesn't stand for the truth.

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And you're accusing me of not

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being the Christ,
which means that you don't know the truth.

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And so, Yes,
this is very conflictual language.

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This is very harsh
for Jesus to say that, you know, John,

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does that sometimes.

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Jesus is very blunt in this gospel, though

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there's parts of that in all the Gospels.

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And then he says, you know,

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you do not believe in me,

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which

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is because you don't hear the word of God.

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The reason you do not hear

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the Word of God
is that you are not from God.

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You've separated yourself
from God by refusing to believe

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and by your actions that are not in
keeping with what God wants.

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And therefore,
if you've separated yourself from God,

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when what do we call God
consistently through this gospel?

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The father,
then your father is of the world.

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Your father is a of something
other than God.

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And and for Jesus
that falls under this, this title,

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the devil, the one who is opposed
to what God is doing. So,

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that's
not to minimize the pointed ness of it.

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It is very, very blunt.

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I mean, it is sharp, but understand

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what Jesus means
when he uses the language, I think.

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I think, don't you think, Clint,
that some of the context is helpful here

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in remembering that the Pharisees
really represent, one very popular strain.

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But there are several strains of Judaism
at this time that are very much

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calling the people to a new kind

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of sustained and intentional practice
of the the Jewish faith.

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There's a kind of renewal happening
that's not incredibly old.

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It stretches some ways back,
but this is just a moment

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where there's a lot of people
turning back to the Abraham, Moses,

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Joseph, Jacob, Isaac stories
and finding in them

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a real inspiration
for living out the faith.

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So this idea that the Pharisees
specifically, and the Jews,

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as John describes them throughout
this book, are calling Jesus to the mat

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to really get in with him
and engage with him on these

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these topics is in some way,
I think, actually, in a charitable sense,

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people really caring about the faith,
people really

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wanting to lean in
and to take Jesus seriously.

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On the flip side of that equation,
when their imaginations are restrained

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by the way
that they read the Bible historically,

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I think when we come to a text
like this one that ends in verse 47 with,

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whoever's from

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God hears the words of God,
and we remember that

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this book began with the word
capital W of God.

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I think we would be very remiss
to not understand

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that there's a lot of plays happening here
between knowing the Scripture,

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knowing the words in lowercase w,

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and then recognizing
and seeing the word capital w.

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And I think they're really challenging.

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And we're going to see this
even more tomorrow if we continue on.

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In verse four,
the eight is going to be that

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the more and more
that you're exposed to the the lower case

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w the words of Scripture in John,
it actually may raise the likelihood

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of your inability
to see and recognize the capital W word.

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And I think that's one of the things
that makes this book so fascinating is

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because we would take that for granted
while knowing the Scripture

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is going to be a help in discerning
the Messiah, so would of everyone

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who was listening to Jesus, and then see
how this conversation tracks it.

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It becomes hostile because the revelation
is not what they expect.

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And there's an interesting
intersection there.

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I don't want to steal tomorrow's

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thunder, but I think it's helpful
maybe to mention today.

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We'll get back to it again tomorrow.

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If you go to the next verse
and you mentioned it, Michael,

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verse 48, hear the Jews answer him.

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Are we not right in saying
that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?

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So it's interesting to hear

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where they take Jesus's criticism.

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Jesus says, you stand apart from God,
therefore

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you're doing the work of the devil

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who is a liar and a murderer,
which are the things you're trying to do.

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You don't have the Word of God
because you don't listen to me.

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I came from God
and the reaction is twofold

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you have the wrong lineage.

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In other words, aren't
we right in saying you're a Samaritan?

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So they question Jesus's parentage?

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And then aren't
we right in saying you have a demon?

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So in other words, not only are you not
one of us, you're not speaking for God,

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which is essentially the highest blasphemy
that you can level against Jesus.

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And in fairness,
Jesus has leveled it against them.

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But rather than

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rather than ask about the

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word, rather than ask about God,
rather than pursue

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anything that Jesus has perhaps
uncovered in their hypocrisy,

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they say instead, well,
you must be this and this.

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And, I think that makes a very interesting
bridge.

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Again,
we will cover some of that tomorrow.

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But I do think,
I think it's helpful to see

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ultimately
where this goes to, to understand,

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both.

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Why why
Jesus is perhaps being so outspoken

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and harsh and and secondly,

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how difficult it is for the people to hear
what he's saying.

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I think I'm going to save, this
for tomorrow's conversation.

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So I'll only speak around this,
but I, I think that

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there's two senses
in which this is really important.

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And the first is
it really helps us understand

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how natively complex

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and conflictual the early church's
experience of the faith really was at you,

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I think, struggle
as a 21st century American, I know

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I do, to put yourself in the context
of those earliest Christians.

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They have no churches to call their own.

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They have no real clergy
to call their own.

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That right. There they are.

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They are a young

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group of people
responding to the revelation of Christ.

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They're trying to figure it out every day
to to teach each other to

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to listen in to other conversations

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and to get a new letter that, for us
becomes a book in the New Testament.

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But for them, you know, hey,
we just got this

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from the church in Ephesus
or from the church in Philippi.

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I there's so much in flux.

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And I think a text like this
would have been a reminder to them

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from Jesus's own teaching, that
that there is conflict in the revelation,

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there's misunderstanding that happens,
and it requires real wisdom.

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It requires real humility to hear
Jesus for who he actually is

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and for what he has to say.

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I think there's a kind
of really humanizing note in that

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there's also a very modern
kind of practical value,

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which we'll get to tomorrow,
I think, because it's easy for us

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to get an imagination for who Jesus was

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and then to say, well,
this is who Jesus was.

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And then we never sort of live
into the complexity of being a human,

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saying these things to people who he might
have been able to name in that crowd.

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And Clint,

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that this kind of

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discourse shows us
that Jesus is making an extreme claim

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about who he is and about the right way
to understand his relationship to God.

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Whether or not he's right is left to our
faith and time and all these other forces.

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But make no mistake about it,
and we'll get to this tomorrow.

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Jesus is not being coy.

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He's not. He's not pulling punches.

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Jesus is going to lay out
in the book of John, this is who I am.

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And you either get it and see it,
or you don't.

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And that's the end of that story. Yeah.

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And if we could do
maybe just a little bit of like, extra

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biblical kind of history,

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we've said this before,
but it's worth remembering,

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John is thought to have been the last
gospel written,

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or the latest of the Gospels,
and that means it would reflect a time

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with probably the most conflict between

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those early Christians and the Jews.

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And John is often
noted for the level of animosity

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between Jesus and those who oppose him.

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And that makes sense, right?

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Because if if John's gospel is later,
and it comes from a time where

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that animosity undergirds
those relationships,

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it only makes sense
that we would see that in the text.

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So keep in mind that these Christians
of this era are living

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under the

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reality of Jewish people,
calling them heretics

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and calling them blasphemers
and kicking them out of synagogues.

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And this, this conflict
that we see in the pages of the Scripture

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are also happening
in the communities of the faith.

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And so,

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they would have resonated,
I think, with these words,

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because in many ways they were living
them.

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Scripture has a way of reflecting the time

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and context in people
who are giving us the text.

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And that is natural,
because when your experience

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saying something, the teachings of Jesus
that are going to rise to the top

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most quickly are the ones that are
speaking to your context, right?

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There's this whole body of things
that Jesus said in a history tradition

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being passed down in this time. And so

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it's the same thing in your life

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in one season, a story
or a song is going to resonate,

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and then the next season it's not going to
is it still important?

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It's just not the first thing
that comes to the top.

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And and that's how it works
in the scriptures.

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And I

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it's just helpful to have that background
when you're reading a book like John.

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Yeah,
it's it's a very oversimplified answer.

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But if one was to ask
why is it that John's

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gospel seems more pointed in those areas,

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a reasonable explanation is because that's
where the church of John's day was at.

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Yeah. So. Well, hey,
thanks for being with us.

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We've already alluded
there's more to come tomorrow.

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I hope you'll join us.

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Subscribe to be part of that conversation
when it comes out tomorrow.

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I certainly hope if you found this
particular study helpful, you, subscribe.

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You'll like it.

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00:19:51,083 --> 00:19:54,316
You'll join us in the comments
and whatever's most helpful for you.

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We're glad to have spent this time
with you. We'll see you tomorrow. But.