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Truth or Consequences! - John 8:12-30

 

TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES

John 8:12-30

      This week I had an eye doctor appointment. As usual, a part of the exam was that the doctor put a couple of drops in my eyes to dilate my pupils, to allow her to look at the inside of the eyes to make sure there were no problems. The lights were turned down in the room, but as my pupils got bigger, I hardly noticed. Until she said, “This will be a little bright…” and shined this blindingly bright light in my eyes. I am a pretty calm person, but that is one exam I never take too well. Ok, I am a baby when it comes to my eyes. She explained it didn’t help her if my pupils were dilated but I kept my eyes closed. I finally gave in, the exam was done, all was fine… Until I stepped out of the office into the sunlight. WAY too bright. I had to go back in the office and ask for one of those plastic things to put behind my dollar-store sunglasses.

       My resistance to the light reminds me of the resistance of fallen humans to the Light of the Gospel in John. Jesus has just said, “I AM the Light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness but have the light of life.” What we have starting in v.13 is an objection by the Pharisees and Jesus’ response to them. It might seem a little odd, but nobody mentions light again until Jesus says in 9:5, “While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.” We know the truth, the world is spiritually dead and blind, but there is hope, there is only one hope, and that is through faith in Jesus. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Light came into the world, but men love darkness rather than light. People often close their eyes or turn away when the Light shines. They say, that’s your belief, that’s your God, my god isn’t like that. The problem is that a god you make up in your own mind and create in your own image can’t do anything for you. The God who is has spoken. He sent His Son to be our Savior. With gentleness and respect we want to point them to the Light.

The Context: Last week we saw Jesus declare in 8:12, “I AM the Light of the World, he who follows Me shall not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” As the scene continues Jesus dialogs with the Pharisees, who are clearly still in the dark. We’ll see the

*Big Idea: *Either we believe the truth that Jesus is God incarnate and trust the provision that He has made for our salvation, or we will reap the consequences of our unbelief. We’ll consider…

1) Our response to the truth;

2) The consequences of unbelief, and

3) Some Good News: Some will believe!

I. How will you respond to the Truth? The Testimony of the Father and the Son (13-20). Jesus only spoke the truth, but He is attacked by the Jewish leadership. Where do you get authority to speak like this?    

12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."  13 So the Pharisees said to him, "You are bearing witness about yourself; your testimony is not true."  14 Jesus answered, "Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. 15 You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. 16 Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me.

       The statement of Jesus in 8:12, “I am the Light of the world…” is challenged by the Pharisees as a baseless self-witness. Jesus reaffirms that he speaks the truth and he knows the truth (we know that He is the Truth!). He knows where he came from and where he is going. They, on the other hand, are still in darkness; they have no idea who He is. And he will make the case again as He did in John 5 that His witness is confirmed by the Father, the One who sent Him, the One to whom He will return.

          "You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one” (8:15). Their judgment is by merely human standards, external, based on their limited (and prejudiced) perceptions. They don’t see the big picture. Our perspective gives context to our perception. As missionaries we had to travel a lot by airplane as many of you have. Those long overnight flights, you can fall asleep (sometimes!)… when it is really smooth, except for the noise of the engines, you can almost forget you are moving… More than once, I woke up after dozing off and I was completely confused, for a few seconds not knowing where I was! Has that ever happened to you? That doesn’t change the truth that you are in a machine traveling 7 miles in the air at 600 mph! You can deny it, you can be momentarily unaware of it, you can choose not to believe it, but it doesn’t change the facts. Jesus is the truth, and He speaks the truth—that doesn’t change whether or not you believe it.

       In v.16 Jesus appeals to his unity with the Father: “…the judgment is not mine alone, but I and the Father who sent me…” The wording here emphasizes the unity between the Father and the Son. Jesus is One with the Father. He emphasized that in John 5, He’ll say it again in v. 19, and then later, explicitly in 14:7-9, if you have seen Him, you’ve seen the Father, if you know Jesus, you know the Father. We’re getting a hint of the unity within the Godhead.  John said it in the first chapter, v. 18,  No one has seen God at any time… He has declared Him.” (cf. John 1:1-5; Col 1:15).

 17 In your Law it is written that the testimony of two men is true.  18 I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me."  19 They said to him therefore, "Where is your Father?" Jesus answered, "You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also."

In 8:17 He points to “their Law” that speaks of the confirmation of a corroborating witness. The phrase, “your law,” is not minimizing the importance of the Law as the Word of God, but Jesus is putting himself in a different category than his accusers.  After all, every word of Scripture is “God breathed,” and Jesus is God! The Law they claim to believe (which was “breathed out” by Christ himself) says two witnesses confirm a matter – Jesus says, here are two: Me and my Father!

       They ask in Jn 8:19, “Where is your father?  They are again thinking at another level, they don’t understand who Jesus is and what He is saying: that shows something about their hearts. He says,  "You know neither Me nor My Father. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also." Its rather similar to what Jesus says later to Philip, “Have I been so long with you and still you don’t know me? He who has seen me has seen the Father.”  

       In v.20 John steps in as the narrator and tells us the setting of the preceding conversation…

20 These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple; but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.”

God’s plan would be carried out in His time. The Big idea is,*Either we believe the truth that Jesus is God incarnate and trust the provision that He has made for our salvation, or we will reap the consequences of our unbelief. We’ve seen the Truth, and now…

II. The Consequence of Unbelief is Eternal Judgment (21-29). Choices always have consequences, no choice is more critical than how we respond to Jesus…

21 So he said to them again, "I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come."  22 So the Jews said, "Will he kill himself, since he says, 'Where I am going, you cannot come'?"  23 He said to them, "You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.

      Truth or consequences. Remember from the Book of Numbers when the Jews accepted the majority report of the spies at Kadesh Barnea, and they reaped the consequences—forty years in the wilderness!  The truth was that God was able to bring them into the Land, but they would not trust Him. As a consequence, though God would indeed bring the nation into the Land as promised, that whole generation, all the adults that left Egypt except for Joshua and Caleb, would die in the wilderness. They chose not to trust God, and they reaped the consequences of that choice. We see here the evidence of unbelief in the Jewish leadership...

       For one thing, in vv.21-22, we see their unbelief in their inability to understand His words. We’ve repeatedly seen this theme in John, the failure of the leaders especially to understand what Jesus was saying. There is a spiritual aspect of “hearing” the Word of God. It means understanding the words, discerning the meaning, and believing that it is true. Remember the word of Paul to the Corinthians: “The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” (I Cor 2:14). In doesn’t mean God’s word is unclear, it means the spiritual sensitivity of fallen humans is that dulled by sin. Jesus will say in John 10, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” To “hear” implies hearing with faith, taking Him at His Word. These leaders did not have ears to hear and a heart to understand.

          What’s more, in v.23 it’s evident that their unbelief is shown by their worldly perspective. They are “…from below… and “of this world,” and they will die in their sins since they are focused on the world. Some people focus their lives and living exclusively on things that aren’t most important, things that are passing away… John warned his readers in his first letter,

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  16 For all that is in the world -- the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life -- is not of the Father but is of the world.  17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:15-17).  

Think about that. Was it Lincoln who said of this passage: “How chastening in the hour of pride, how consoling in the hour of affliction!”  Isn’t that true? Life is short. Enjoy the blessings God gives. But don’t lose perspective. Remember we are here on assignment, and that we were created for eternity… the best is yet to come!

       Vv.24-27 gets to the heart of the Matter: They don’t know Jesus. Most of them had no idea, they didn’t know who Jesus was. 

24 I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins."  25 So they said to him, "Who are you?" Jesus said to them, "Just what I have been telling you from the beginning.  26 I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him."  27 They did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the Father.

       Either they believe the truth about Him, or they are lost and will one day “die in their sins.”  That is as true today as it was then. That is a horrible thought—to stand one day before His Holiness, guilty, naked, condemned. Our sinfulness exposed, no hope. THIS is the Day of Salvation! Choose life!

       The only means of avoiding judgment is stated: “…if you do not believe that I AM…” It’s not enough to consider Jesus a great moral teacher or even a prophet from God. It won’t do to call him the first and greatest of God’s creation as some cults would. He is the great I AM. In verse 24, and again here in 8:28…

28 So Jesus said to them, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he [I AM], and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.  29 And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him."

          Jesus looks ahead to the cross (and resurrection) in v.28, then finally some will have their eyes opened, understand and believe: “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I AM…”  This phrase “lifted up” isn’t numerous in John, but it occurs at import moments in the story (see also 3:14,15; 12:32,34). It has the double sense of “lifting upphysically onto the cross in crucifixion, but also exaltation, as Jesus is vindicated in the fulfillment of scripture as the promised Messiah. “Son of Man” is one of his own favorite self-designations which is an allusion to Daniel 7:13 and the coming in glory of the Son.  Finally, as the plan unfolds according to the predetermined purpose and foreknowledge of God, the hearts of his sheep will be opened to the truth. All that the Father has given Him will come. The Big Idea is: *Either we believe the truth that Jesus is God incarnate and trust the provision that He has made for our salvation, or we will reap the consequences of our unbelief.

III. Good News: Some will hear and believe (30). A short verse, but full of hope…

30 As he was saying these things, many believed in him.

       It’s not certain that all of these had genuine saving faith (more on that next week, see v.31!), but many at least professed to believe that He was who he claimed to be.  Some encouragement we can take away from this is that some will hear and believe. It’s still true that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ.

       Each of us have people around us that we have opportunity to share our faith with. Family members, friends, neighbors, colleagues at work or in school.  Are you frustrated by a lack of response? Are you tired of being put down? Don’t give up. Remember what is at stake. Whether or not they know it, the clock is ticking, and time is short. If you try to warn them and are rejected, that may hurt, but remember, they are not rejecting you, they are rejecting God, and eternity is at stake. Occasionally we hear testimonies of some who it seemed would never believe, and then finally, after years of hearing the testimony of someone around them, had their heart softened and believed.

     In the near context (chapter 7) we saw the Jewish leadership scoff at the idea of believing in Jesus: none of the Pharisees have believed, had they? And then, at the end of Chapter 7, Nicodemus spoke up, the one who had come to Jesus by night in John 3, calls on his colleagues in the Sanhedrin to at least give him a hearing. Later in Chapter 19, after the crucifixion, he goes with Joseph of Arimathea and helps him give Jesus a respectful burial. Not many, but even some of the Pharisees came to believe the One who is the Truth. There will be another young pharisee named Saul in Acts 7, standing by approving when Stephen is stoned. Later He would meet Jesus, and his eyes would be opened to the truth!

What is God saying to me in this passage? Either we believe the truth that Jesus is God incarnate and trust the provision that He has made for our salvation, or we will reap the consequences of our unbelief.

What would God have me to do in response to this passage?

1) If you are reading this today, you could be gone tomorrow. What then? Are you ready?  Are you certain? The warning has been given. There is no excuse. The Gift is offered, will you believe and receive?     

2) Believer, what does this say about the urgency of our mission? Every person we cross paths with—every human on the face of this planet—is facing eternity.  Will you point those around you to the Light of Life? Jesus came that we might have life, and that we might have it more abundantly. He came not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. We have been entrusted with the Word of Life. We’ve been called to be the body of Christ in the world. We need to reflect the Light of the world in our sphere of influence.

3) The Lord’s Table is a moment to focus on the Gospel, the Good News that is at the heart of the story, The Father sent the Son, the Son gave His life, so that we could be saved, by grace, through faith… This is how God showed His love among us!  Amen.

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